Electricity and batteries in Ancient India
Electricity and batteries in Ancient India By- AAKASH SAINI Galvani in 1780 discovered what he called the “animal electricity”. He found that connecting a nerve in a frog leg to two different interconnected metals causes the leg to contract (See image below). What happens here is that, the circuit gets completed via the frog leg and the voltage difference between the two different metals causes an electric current to be produced. This electrical stimulation of nerves causes muscle contraction, because that is how nerves communicate with muscles in animal body. Galvanism: The twitching of frog’s legs – Source: Wikipedia So, it was not animal electricity as Galvani had called it, but electricity generated by metal-metal contact that caused animal leg to contract. And this was what Volta proved in 1794. Alessandro Volta invented electric battery and did not use any biological material in his device. He produced electricity using copper and zinc plates, separated by brine-soaked paper...