and “pneumatic” chemist
In the summer 1776 on Lake Maggiore, while Volta is on a boat close to a cane field, he sees many bubbles from the water. He collects the gas, discovers that it is flammable and he calls it flammable air from the marshes (methane); he also describes its properties which are different from other “flammable airs”.
He notices the possibility of producing an explosion of this flammable gas by means of a spark, even in a closed box; then he makes an interesting device, later called “Volta pistol”. He also observes that his pistol can be used to measure the strength of the explosion (saggiatore) of flammable gases. Thus Voltàs pistol becomes an “eudiometer”, an instrument capable of measuring the amount of oxygen in the air.
Volta also builds a “perpetual lamp” with flammable gas.
In the years 1786-1792 Volta studies electrical meteorology and the physical and chemical properties of gases, determining, ten years before Gay-Lussac, the law of uniform expansion of air.
Volta is the first to affirm that permanent rivers are fed by glaciers.
1) Volta's pistol.
2) “Perpetual lamp” with flammable gas.
