Luigi Galvani had the perfect name for an East Coast Italian restaurant, but his only known association with gourmet food was his famous experiment with frog legs in 1786. The professor of medicine in Bologna accidentally produced an electric charge against the legs of a dead frog. The charge was the result of the wet frog lying on a metal plate while being probed with a knife made from a different metal. Galvani was convinced that the twitching legs were the result of electricity already existing in the frog’s tissues and muscles.
He was none too pleased when his friend Alessandro Volta disagreed and proved him wrong by showing that moisture caught between two different metals can create a small current, frog or no frog. As a result of his disputatious observations, Volta went on to invent the first electric battery (called the voltaic pile) and, more important, to show that electricity could flow in a current along a wire instead of only in a single spark or shock.
In addition to being named a count in 1801 by Napoleon, Volta had the term “volt” named after him. As for Dr. Frog Legs, he walked away with the consolation prize of having the term “galvanism” (to have an electric current) named after him.
He was none too pleased when his friend Alessandro Volta disagreed and proved him wrong by showing that moisture caught between two different metals can create a small current, frog or no frog. As a result of his disputatious observations, Volta went on to invent the first electric battery (called the voltaic pile) and, more important, to show that electricity could flow in a current along a wire instead of only in a single spark or shock.
In addition to being named a count in 1801 by Napoleon, Volta had the term “volt” named after him. As for Dr. Frog Legs, he walked away with the consolation prize of having the term “galvanism” (to have an electric current) named after him.
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