Editing Voltaic pile (section)

== History ==
{{main|History of the battery#Invention}}
Volta's invention was built on [[Luigi Galvani]]'s 1780s discovery that a circuit of two metals and a frog's leg can cause the frog's leg to respond.<ref name=":0" /> Volta demonstrated in 1794 that when two metals and [[brine]]-soaked cloth or cardboard are arranged in a circuit they too produce an electric current. In 1800, Volta stacked several pairs of alternating [[copper]] (or [[silver]]) and [[zinc]] discs ([[electrode]]s) separated by cloth or cardboard soaked in brine, which increased the total electromotive force.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Brockman |first=C. J. |date=June 1927 |title=Primary cells—A brief historical sketch |url=https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ed004p770 |journal=[[Journal of Chemical Education]] |language=en |volume=4 |issue=6 |pages=770 |doi=10.1021/ed004p770 |issn=0021-9584}}</ref><ref name="Mottelay">{{cite book |title=Bibliographical History of Electricity and Magnetism |first=Paul Fleury |last=Mottelay |page=247 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9vzti90Q8i0C&pg=PA247 |isbn=978-1-4437-2844-7 |publisher=Read Books |year=2008 |edition=Reprint of 1892}}</ref> When the top and bottom contacts were connected by a wire, an electric [[Current (electricity)|current]] flowed through the voltaic pile and the connecting wire. This was the first "true" battery, that gave off continuous charge.<ref name=":12">{{Cite web |title=The Voltaic Pile {{!}} Distinctive Collections Spotlights |url=https://libraries.mit.edu/collections/vail-collection/topics/electricity/the-voltaic-pile/ |access-date=2023-01-24 |website=libraries.mit.edu |language=en-US}}</ref>

Many scientific instruments that belonged to [[Alessandro Volta]] are preserved in the [[University History Museum, University of Pavia|University History Museum of the University of Pavia]], where Volta taught from 1778 to 1819; the piles on display, unfortunately, are not original, as the ones preserved in Pavia were lent on the occasion of the centenary of the invention and subsequently lost in a fire.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://museoperlastoria.unipv.it/en/alessandro-volta-2/|title=Sala Volta|work=Musei Unipv|access-date=21 August 2022}}</ref>