Alessandro Guiseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta

Alessandro Guiseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta (b. Como, Italy, 18th Feb.1745, d. Como, Italy, 5th March 1827) was a pioneer in the field of electricity. The SI unit of electric potential was named after him as the Volt. The portrait (above) was featured on the Italian 10,000 Lire banknote. He came from a Lombard family ennobled by the municipality of Como and almost extinguished, in his time, through its service to the church. One of his paternal uncles was a Dominican, another a Canon and the third an Archdeacon. His father, Filipo (1862-1752), after eleven years as a Jesuit, withdrew to propagate the line. Filipo married Maddelena de' conti Inzaghi in 1773. They had seven children; three girls, two of whom became nuns; three boys who followed the careers of their uncles; and Alessandro, the youngest.

Volta developed the concept of 'state of saturation of bodies' to explain attractions and repulsions of electrified bodies. The electrophore he invented was severely criticized by Beccaria, one of the chief authorities in electricity. In 1774, he became the principal of the state Gymnasium in Como. In 1775, he was granted the professorship of experimental physics. Cavendish's memoir of 1771 made Volta transform his notion of 'natural saturation' into the concept of potential. His last memoir was on galvanic and common electricity. Seeing Volta's demonstrations, Napoleon raised him to Count and Senator of the kingdom of Italy. During the last 20 years of his life he had the income of a wealthy man.