Metal Electricity

...Galvani, an anatomist at the University of Bologna, had been studying the effects of electricity on frogs' legs since 1880, and proposed the theory that the contraction of the muscles in the frogs' legs was due to the effect of "animal electricity" that originated from the brain and flowed through the nerves to the muscles. Volta, on the other hand, based on various experiments, opposed this theory, and in 1893 proposed the theory of "metallic electricity," which states that the effect is generated by metals in contact with some kind of moist object. He later discovered that even without a moist object, different metal plates can become charged with electricity of opposite signs just by contacting each other. However, he realized that no matter how many metal plates are stacked together, it is not possible to generate an electromotive force in a circuit, and in a letter to the president of the Royal Society in 1800, he showed a device (called an electric pile) that was used to generate electric current, in which damp cardboard was sandwiched between silver and zinc discs and stacked in a column shape, and also described a cup battery in which a cup filled with salt water was connected by an arc connecting the two metals, silver and zinc, together. …

*Some of the terminology that refers to "metal electricity" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…ボローニャ大学の解剖学者ガルバーニは，80年からカエルの脚に及ぼす電気作用の研究をしており，カエルの脚の筋肉収縮は脳髄から出て神経を通って筋肉に流れ込む〈動物電気〉の作用によるという説を提唱していた。これに対してボルタは，さまざまな実験を基礎にして，この〈動物電気〉説に反対し，93年，作用は何らかのしめった物体に接触した金属から発するという〈金属電気〉説を提唱し，さらにその後，しめった物体がなくとも異種の金属板を互いに接触させただけで，それぞれ異符号の電気を帯びることも見いだした。しかし金属板だけをいくら重ねても，回路に起電力を生じさせることができないことに気づき，1800年のローヤル･ソサエティ会長あての手紙の中で，電流発生装置として，銀円板と亜鉛円板の間にしめった厚紙をはさんだものを柱状に積み上げた装置(電堆と呼ばれた)を示し，同時に，塩水を入れたコップを銀板と亜鉛板の2種の金属を結んだ円弧でつなぐコップ電池についても述べている。…

※「金属電気」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報