From Dead Frog to First Battery

The First Battery Was Inspired By a Dead Frog

Alessandro Volta invented his electric pile to disprove Luigi Galvani’s “animal electricity”

31 Aug 2026

6 min read

Allison Marsh is a professor at the University of South Carolina and the codirector of the Ann Johnson Institute for Science, Technology & Society.

The Italian scientists Alessandro Volta [left] and Luigi Galvani [right] were friends, but they disagreed on the nature of bioelectricity.

Collage: IEEE Spectrum; Source images: Apic/SSPL/Universal History Archive/Getty Images