Chemical Energy, Historical Evolution of the Use Of
Beginnings
Electric power, which is produced as a result of chemical reaction, and chemical change that is initiated by the flow of electricity embody the science and technology of electrochemistry. Its history is fairly recent, though electrochemistry might have been used in early historic times for medicinal purposes and electroplating with gold, a suggestion based on vessels containing copper tubes and central iron rods unearthed at various sites in Mesopotamia.
Public awareness of electrochemical processing dates from a meeting of the Royal Society in 1807. English society paid large admission fees to hear Humphry Davy lecture on electrically inducing chemical reactions and to witness him produce sodium and potassium from potash. In a spectacular flourish, Davy dropped the amalgamated product into water, at which moment the alkali metals reacted violently with the water to generate hydrogen, which burst into flame.
The true beginnings of electrochemistry were the experiments of Luigi Galvani and Alessandro Volta in the late eighteenth century. In 1780, Galvani, an Italian anatomist, generated what he believed to be animal electrical energy. Volta, a contemporary Italian physicist, doubted its "animal" nature and, in setting out to disprove it, invented what we now call the "galvanic" or "voltaic" cell (Figure 1), so named to honor these scientific pioneers.
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