[Colin] tells us it all started with [Benjamin Franklin]’s battery of capacitors ... [Alessandro Volta] introduces his voltaic pile. Once scientists latched onto the idea of a stable reaction ...

But it was Italian inventor Alessandro Volta (1745–1827) who created the first electric battery after studying these animals. His 1799 voltaic pile consisted of copper and zinc discs separated ...

Combining several pairs (named a voltaic pile), he invented the first battery. Scientists and inventors around the world were enamored with the discovery. Not long afterward, the technology was ...