Alessandro Volta was an Italian chemist and physicist born on February 18, 1745, in Como, Italy, and he died on March 5, 1827. He is best known as the inventor of the electric battery, specifically the voltaic pile in 1799, which was the first device to generate electricity chemically rather than by living beings. This invention marked the beginning of electrochemistry and the use of continuous electric current. Volta's work disproved the earlier theory of "animal electricity" by Luigi Galvani and demonstrated the role of metals in producing electric current. The unit of electric potential, the volt, is named in his honor. He held the chair of experimental physics at the University of Pavia for nearly 40 years and was highly respected in his time, receiving honors from Napoleon Bonaparte and other dignitaries.