Italian physicist Alessandro Volta posed for this painting with two of his inventions on the table, the voltaic pile (left) and the electrophorus (right). __1800: __Italian physicist Alessandro ...

A new Google Doodle is celebrating what would have been the 270th birthday of the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta, who in the year 1800 published a theory that led to the modern battery.

Google’s homepage Wednesday celebrates the 270th anniversary of Alessandro Volta’s birth with an animated illustration befitting the father of the first electrical battery. Holmes writes about ...

1800: __Italian physicist Alessandro Volta reports that he's developed a reliable source of electrical current. He's invented the wet-cell battery. Volta had already created the electrophorus to ...