Figure 2:  Four variations of Volta’s electric battery.
Silver and zinc disks are separated with moist paper. © Cadex Electronics Inc.

In the same year, Volta released his discovery of a continuous source of electricity to the Royal Society of London. No longer were experiments limited to a brief display of sparks that lasted a fraction of a second. A seemingly endless stream of electric current was now available.

France was one of the first nations to officially recognize Volta’s discoveries. At the time, France was approaching the height of scientific advancements and new ideas were welcomed with open arms to support the political agenda. By invitation, Volta addressed the Institute of France in a series of lectures at which Napoleon Bonaparte was present as a member of the Institute.

Figure 3: Volta’s experimentations at the French National Institute.
Volta’s discoveries so impressed the world that in November 1800, he was invited by the French National Institute to lectures in which Napoleon Bonaparte participated. Later, Napoleon himself helped with the experiments, drawing sparks from the battery, melting a steel wire, discharging an electric pistol and decomposing water into its elements. © Cadex Electronics Inc.

New discoveries were made when Sir Humphry Davy, inventor of the miner’s safety lamp, installed the largest and most powerful electric battery in the vaults of the Royal Institution of London. He connected the battery to charcoal electrodes and produced the first electric light. As reported by witnesses, his voltaic arc lamp produced “the most brilliant ascending arch of light ever seen.”

Davy's most important investigations were devoted to electrochemistry. Following Galvani's experiments and the discovery of the voltaic cell, interest in galvanic electricity had become widespread. Davy began to test the chemical effects of electricity in 1800. He soon found that by passing electrical current through some substances, these substances decomposed, a process later called electrolysis. The generated voltage was directly related to the reactivity of the electrolyte with the metal. Evidently, Davy understood that the actions of electrolysis and the voltaic cell were the same.