Editing Voltaic pile (section)

== Dry piles ==

A number of high-voltage ''dry piles'' were invented between 1800 and the 1830s in an attempt to determine the source of [[electricity]] of the wet voltaic pile, and specifically to support Volta's hypothesis of contact tension. Indeed, Volta himself experimented with a pile whose cardboard discs had dried out, most likely accidentally.

The first to publish the discovery of a dry pile that produced a current was [[Johann Wilhelm Ritter]] in 1802, albeit in an obscure journal; over the next decade, it was announced repeatedly as a new discovery. One form of dry pile is the [[Zamboni pile]]. [[Francis Ronalds]] in 1814 was one of the first to realize that dry piles also worked through chemical reaction rather than metal-to-metal contact, even though corrosion was not visible due to the very small currents generated.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Sir Francis Ronalds: Father of the Electric Telegraph|last=Ronalds|first=B.F.|publisher=Imperial College Press|year=2016|isbn=978-1-78326-917-4|location=London}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ronalds|first=B.F.|date=July 2016|title=Francis Ronalds (1788-1873): The First Electrical Engineer?|journal=Proceedings of the IEEE|volume=104|issue=7|pages=1489–1498|doi=10.1109/JPROC.2016.2571358|s2cid=20662894}}</ref>

The dry pile could be referred to as the ancestor of the modern [[dry cell]].{{original research inline|date=January 2022}}