GoKawiilVolta's 1799 dispute with Galvani over frog legs led to the first battery
In 1799, Italian physicist Alessandro Volta built a stack of alternating zinc and copper discs separated by brine-soaked paper, creating the first device to produce a steady electric current. His invention, later called the voltaic pile, was a direct rebuttal to fellow scientist Luigi Galvani's theory that dissected frog legs twitched due to an innate 'animal electricity' generated within living tissue. Volta argued instead that the electricity came from the contact between two different metals, with the frog's moist tissue merely acting as a conductor.