The voltaic pile was the first electrical battery that could continuously provide an electric current to a circuit. It was invented by Alessandro Volta, who published his experiments in 1799. The voltaic pile then enabled a rapid series of other discoveries including the electrical decomposition (electrolysis) of water into oxygen and hydrogen by William Nicholson and Anthony Carlisle (1800) and the discovery or isolation of the chemical elements sodium (1807), potassium (1807), calcium (1808), boron (1808), barium (1808), strontium (1808), and magnesium (1808) by Humphry Davy. Wikipedia, Voltaic Pile

See Also

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Battery
Benjamin Franklin
Electromotive Series
Electrolysis
Galvani, Luigi
Galvanic Cell
galvanism
HHO
Volta, Alessandro