From mobile phones to remote controls, from tablets to gamepads for various video games: if the battery (or whatever you want to call it) had never been invented, our lives today would be decidedly different.

It was our very own Alessandro Volta, back in 1880, who made one of those inventions that changed human life.

Despite its importance, however, few people know the history of the battery and how it works. That's why today we're going to try and discover everything together.

The birth of the electric battery
As mentioned, its invention is attributed to Alessandro Volta who, building on the studies carried out by several scientists before him, succeeded in creating the first artificial generator of electricity, the battery.

From the late 1760s onwards, Volta began writing memoirs and letters about his research activities, questioning some of the most accredited interpretations of electrical phenomena at the time. In 1775, he developed his first notable invention: the perpetual electrophorus. This was an instrument consisting of a disc with a perpendicular handle for gripping, used together with an insulating surface and a woolen cloth to obtain an electrical charge for particular experiments.

Based on the studies of several contemporaries, Volta also invented the capacitor, the electricity capacitor, which represents the first prototype of the electric battery.

Alongside his studies on the battery, during the last decades of the eighteenth century, the European scientific landscape was in fervent activity. Scientists from every corner of the continent sought to unravel the mysteries of electricity, a force hitherto poorly understood but considered of fundamental importance. The growing curiosity about electrical phenomena was not only academic: it was believed that a greater understanding of electricity could lead to revolutionary technological developments. In this context of intellectual curiosity and intense scientific competition, Volta's discoveries took on even greater significance, offering not only a new way of generating energy but also revealing new possibilities for exploiting what was becoming one of the most studied natural forces of the time.

All the discoveries of the Lombard scientist allowed for the exploitation of electrical phenomena and a more scientific and accurate measurement of electricity, with the proposal to introduce standard measures.

The real breakthrough came between 1799 and 1800, when Volta created and perfected the invention that would make him famous worldwide: the battery.

As mentioned, it was not a sudden discovery, but rather the result of long years of previous studies and observations, based in particular on animal electricity and the related theories of another Italian, Luigi Galvani, who, in simplified terms, argued that animals were traversed by an "electric fluid" and that this electricity was produced by the brain and then carried by the nerves to the muscles where it was stored.

Alessandro Volta drew inspiration from Galvani's hypothesis but, at the same time, contested it, arguing that the animal could not be the direct cause of the current flow. This insight was fundamental for the development of the battery. Volta elaborated several experiments to produce a battery capable of generating a constant electric current.

Volta, aware of the importance of his discovery, dedicated many months to the technical perfection of his invention. Beyond the scientific challenge, he also had to deal with the practical problem of making the battery a functional and usable device. This led him to develop the first versions of what we today call a "prototype," with the help of materials available at the time. It is said that Volta spent entire days in laboratories, trying different combinations of metals and electrolytic solutions until he found the formula that guaranteed a stable production of electricity. His tireless dedication contributed significantly to the birth of electrical science as we know it today.

The definitive version consisted of a column of zinc discs alternating with copper discs, with an intermediate layer of cardboard soaked in salt water (or made acidic). In this system, each disc creates a potential difference between the metal and the solution; in the case of zinc and copper, the former assumes the most negative potential. By connecting the two poles with an electrical conductor, a circuit was created through which direct current flowed.

Alessandro Volta's battery was the first system capable of generating electricity with a constant current over time. The name derives from the fact that the metal discs that made it work were "stacked" one on top of the other.

It was Volta himself, on March 20, 1880, who communicated his invention to the Royal Society of London with a letter that brought him great fame.

Until 1869 - the year the dynamo was invented - the battery was the only means of producing electric current (then mainly used for the telegraph).

The system on which the electric battery in the nineteenth century was based was quite simple and, as mentioned, consisted of a single column constructed from various voltaic elements. This type of battery could be charged and maintained electricity for a limited period of time.

Nowadays, the electric battery is very different from that of 1800 - both in terms of appearance and its functioning - and works by converting chemical energy into electrical energy.

The batteries on the market today are called dry cells because the liquid solution, i.e., the electrolyte, is replaced by pasty substances in which a cylindrical carbon rod is immersed, replacing copper. The whole thing is placed in a zinc container which also serves as the negative pole.

In addition to dry cells, there are other batteries on the market, such as alkaline batteries, which are made differently from dry cells and have better performance in terms of durability and efficiency.