Batteries for electric action organs, 1866-76

• Published in: Transactions of the Institute of Metal Finishing 2006, Vol.84 (1), p.28-35
• Main Author: HEMSLEY, J. D. C
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Applications; Applied sciences; Engineering techniques in metallurgy. Applications. Other aspects; Exact sciences and technology; Metals. Metallurgy; Others applications
• ISSN: 0020-2967; 1745-9192
• DOI: 10.1179/174591906X94249

Alessandro Volta, a professor of experimental philosophy at Pavia University, published his innovative work on the world's first battery in 1800, thereby opening a floodgate of electrical and electrochemical invention that was, over the following 50 years, to revolutionise the speed of international communication, provide the basis for the industrial production of metals and chemicals and portend the advent of the telephone, sound recording and 'mains' electricity for industry and the home. Such a pace of technological change was encouraged by a pioneering spirit that was only matched by nuclear energy science in the twentieth century and now by the IT revolution. The world's first truly practical electric organ was built by C.S. Barker for the Collegiate Church of St-Laurent at Salon de Provence, Bouches du Rhone, near Marseilles in 1866. Gabriel Bedart noted in his translation of George Laing Miller's book of 1913 that he had visited the Salon organ in 1912 and that it 'fonctionne tres bien avec les electro-aimants, places par Barker, 46 ans auparavant'. Bedart went on to record that the electromagnets took 0.5-0.6 A at a supply potential of 8 V(8).