Editing Galvanism (section)

=== Johann Georg Sulzer ===
[[File:Johann Georg Sulzer c. 1780.jpg|thumb|206x206px|Johann Georg Sulzer]]
Galvanic phenomena were described in the literature before it was understood that they were of an electrical nature. In 1752, when the Swiss mathematician and physicist [[Johann Georg Sulzer]] placed his tongue between a piece of lead and a piece of silver, joined at their edges, he perceived a taste similar to that of [[iron(II) sulfate]]. Neither of the metals alone produced this taste. He realized that the contact between the metals probably did not produce a solution of either on the tongue. He did, however, not realize that this was an electrical phenomenon.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Whittaker |first=Edmund Taylor |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_History_of_the_Theories_of_Aether_and_Electricity/Chapter_3#68 |title=A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity: From the Age of Descartes to the Close of the Nineteenth Century |publisher=Longmans, Green, and Co |year=1910 |series=(Dublin University Press Series) |pages=67}}</ref> He concluded that the contact between the metals caused their particles to vibrate, producing this taste by stimulating the nerves of the tongue.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sulzer |first=Johann Georg |url=https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Histoire_de_l'Académie_Royale#1754 |title=Histoire de l'Académie Royale des Sciences et des Belles-Lettres de Berlin 1752 |year=1754 |pages=356 |chapter=Recherches sur l'origine des sentimens agréables et désagréables: Troisième partie. Des plaisirs des sens |chapter-url=https://digilib.bbaw.de/digilib/digilib.html?fn=/silo10/Bibliothek.tiff/02-hist/1752/tif/&pn=369}}</ref>
{{Blockquote|text=If we join two pieces, one of lead, and the other of silver, so that the two edges join, and if we approach them with the tongue we will feel some taste, quite similar to the taste of vitriol of iron [iron(II) sulfate], while each piece apart gives no trace of this taste. It is not probable that through this junction of the two metals, any solution of one or the other occurs, and that the dissolved particles penetrate the tongue. We must therefore conclude that the junction of these metals produces in one or the other, or in both, a vibration in their particles, and that this vibration, which must necessarily affect the nerves of the tongue, produces there the taste mentioned.|author=Johann Georg Sulzer|source=“Recherches sur l'origine des sentimens agréables et désagréables: Troisième partie. Des plaisirs des sens”}}