Athena Spears, age 14, of Marietta, Georgia, for her question:

Who made the first battery?

He was Alessandro Volta of Italy and the electrical unit called the volt is named in his honor. Many scholars through many centuries had tried to understand and tame the mighty force of electricity. In the late 1700s, several scientists of European countries were on the verge of solving the problem. Volta studied their experiments and added an original idea of his own. He used a group of everyday items to create a simple electrical circuit that continuously supplied its own current.

This was the first working battery and Volta announced his invention to the world in 1800. By our standards, it was a very simple battery indeed. Volta used a stack of zinc and copper disks, alternated with circles of leather soaked in lye. The moistened chemicals generated electricity and the current was lead through a circuit of copper wire attached to the base of the pile. We call this type of battery a voltaic cell or voltaic pile and, in a small way, it still works.