Emily Dickinson Lexicon

VOL-TAW, a.

Pertaining to Volta, the discoverer of voltaism; as, the voltaic pile. Voltaic apparatus, the apparatus used for accumulating galvanic electricity. The agent itself is denominated galvanism, after its discoverer, Galvani, while the instruments used for exciting and accumulating it, are called voltaic, in honor of Volta, who first contrived this kind of apparatus. Voltaic pile, a column formed by successive pairs of metallic disks, as silver and zink, with moistened cloth between every two contiguous pairs. Voltaic battery, the larger forms of voltaic apparatus, used for accumulating galvanic electricity.