National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Barlow's Wheel
English mathematician Peter Barlow devised an instrument in 1822 that built on advances from earlier in the century (including the invention the battery) to create a very early kind of electric motor.
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Voltaic Pile
Italian scientist Alessandro Volta was the first to recognize key principles of electrochemistry, and applied those principles to the creation of the first battery, a simple tool which came to be known as the voltaic pile.
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Voltaic Pile 1800
For thousands of years, electricity was an ephemeral phenomenon- there one second and gone the next. The voltaic pile changed that forever.