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41 Volta, Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio
SUBJECT AREA: Electricity[br]b. 18 February 1745 Como, Italyd. 5 March 1827 Como, Italy[br]Italian physicist, discoverer of a source of continuous electric current from a pile of dissimilar metals.[br]Volta had an early command of English, French and Latin, and also learned to read Dutch and Spanish. After completing studies at the Royal Seminary in Como he was involved in the study of physics, chemistry and electricity. He became a teacher of physics in his native town and in 1779 was appointed Professor of Physics at the University of Pavia, a post he held for forty years.With a growing international reputation and a wish to keep abreast of the latest developments, in 1777 he began the first of many travels abroad. A journey started in 1781 to Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Holland, France and England lasted about one year. By 1791 he had been elected to membership of many learned societies, including those in Zurich, Berlin, Berne and Paris. Volta's invention of his pile resulted from a controversy with Luigi Galvani, Professor of Anatomy at the University of Bologna. Galvani discovered that the muscles of frogs' legs contracted when touched with two pieces of different metals and attributed this to a phenomenon of the animal tissue. Volta showed that the excitation was due to a chemical reaction resulting from the contact of the dissimilar metals when moistened. His pile comprised a column of zinc and silver discs, each pair separated by paper moistened with brine, and provided a source of continuous current from a simple and accessible source. The effectiveness of the pile decreased as the paper dried and Volta devised his crown of cups, which had a longer life. In this, pairs of dissimilar metals were placed in each of a number of cups partly filled with an electrolyte such as brine. Volta first announced the results of his experiments with dissimilar metals in 1800 in a letter to Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society. This letter, published in the Transactions of the Royal Society, has been regarded as one of the most important documents in the history of science. Large batteries were constructed in a number of laboratories soon after Volta's discoveries became known, leading immediately to a series of developments in electrochemistry and eventually in electromagnetism. Volta himself made little further contribution to science. In recognition of his achievement, at a meeting of the International Electrical Congress in Paris in 1881 it was agreed to name the unit of electrical pressure the "volt".[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFRS 1791. Royal Society Copley Medal 1794. Knight of the Iron Crown, Austria, 1806. Senator of the Realm of Lombardy 1809.Bibliography1800, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 18:744–6 (Volta's report on his discovery).Further ReadingG.Polvani, 1942, Alessandro Volta, Pisa (the best account available).B.Dibner, 1964, Alessandro Volta and the Electric Battery, New York (a detailed account).C.C.Gillispie (ed.), 1976, Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Vol. XIV, New York, pp.66–82 (includes an extensive biography).F.Soresni, 1988, Alessandro Volta, Milan (includes illustrations of Volta's apparatus, with brief text).GWBiographical history of technology > Volta, Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio
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42 Wright, Basil Martin
SUBJECT AREA: Medical technology[br]b. 20 December 1912 Dulwich, London, England[br]English physician and research physiologist, inventor of the Wright Respirometer peak-flow meter for measurement of respiratory ventilatory capacity and of "fluid lens" spectacles.[br]He qualified at St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1938 and after early hospital posts served in the Army as a specialist in pathology in West Africa and Singapore. In 1947 he joined the Medical Research Council (MRC) and until 1957 he was involved with the Pneumoconiosis Research Unit in investigation of dust inhalation. In 1957 he transferred to the National Institute for Medical Research, to concentrate on instrument development, and in 1969 to the Bioengineering Division of the MRC Clinical Research Centre at Northwick Park Hospital. He was responsible for a number of instrumental developments and inventions in the fields, amongst others, of respiration measurement, blood alcohol levels and variable adjustable spectacle lenses (achieved by altering the curvature of the surface of a thinwalled transparent fluid cell).[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFellow of the Royal College of Physicians 1989. Doctor of Medicine, Cambridge, 1969. International Inventors Fair Design Awards and Gold Medal.Bibliography1955, "A respiratory anemometer", Journal of Physiology.1959, with McKerrow, "Maximum forced expiatory flow rate as a measure of respiratory capacity", British Medical Journal.1978, "Variable focus spectacles", Transactions of the Ophthalmological Society of theUK.1986, "Patient-triggered ventilation in the new-born", Lancet.MG
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