Volta's "Crown of Cups" and Voltaic Piles, 1800

Volta's "Crown of Cups" and Voltaic Piles, 1800

In 1800 Alessandro Volta (February 18, 1745 - March 5, 1827) described the Crown of Cups in a letter to Joseph Banks, the President of the Royal Society. It consisted of a series of glasses, containing acidulated or salt water, and connected by metal straps dipping into the liquid. These straps consisted of a ribbon of one metal (copper) soldered to the end of a ribbon of another metal (zinc). This was an alternative to the voltaic pile. The voltaic pile was the first electrical battery that could continuously provide an electric current to a circuit. Volta stacked several pairs of alternating copper (or silver) and zinc discs (electrodes) separated by cloth or cardboard soaked in brine (electrolyte) to increase the electrolyte conductivity. When the top and bottom contacts were connected by a wire, an electric current flowed through the voltaic pile and the connecting wire.

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