The Legacy of Volta: From the Battery to Photovoltaic Electricity (History of Science Exhibition, Tongji University, Shanghai, China, Sept. 16-30, 2006)

Using about 30 original 18th- and 19th-century original instruments (belonging to the Museo per la Storia dell'Università di Pavia), the exhibition illustrates Volta's invention of the battery and the consequent birth of electrochemistry and electromagnetism. The central steps of the development of electromagnetism are also presented. Special attention is then focused on Volta's idea of contact electricty and on the modern version of contact electricity (Volta effect), as well as on the incorporation of this effect in fundamental components of present-day technology (LEDs, microchips, photovoltaic detectors, photovoltaic pannels)