Count Alessandro Volta

Franklin (1706-1790), his discovery that flashes of lightning are merely electrical phenomena and his invention of the lightning rod are too familiar to need repeating; the work of Luigi Galvani (1737-1798) and of Count Alessandro Volta (1745-1827), two famous Italian physicists, is less well known, but their labors contributed much to the development of physical science, and their memory is perpetuated whenever the modern electrician refers to a "voltaic cell" or when the tinsmith speaks of "galvanized" iron.

A Political and Social History of Modern Europe V.1. Carlton J. H. Hayes 1923