To electiicians arid c oii ntisfs Volta and
Galvar.i are familiar namef; in fact, the\
are known to the urlearned a? have
become incorporated in toe language and
are uttered almost daily. The two men
were contemporaries and carried on some
of their experiments together. It was in
I 1790 that Galvani made bis most celebrat
ed discovery. His attention was accident
ally called to the muscular contractions of
a frog which bad been recently killed and
skinned and was lying on a table near an
electricil machine, which by chance was
set to work. Thinking that possibly aim
ilar contractions might be obtained from
atmospheric electricity he suspended the
thigh of a frog by means of a hook from
an iron railing and found the contraction
whentt r the muscle touched the railing.
From this he assumed that the nerves and
muscles of the animal body formed a kind
of Leyden jar which was discharged
whenever an external circuit brought
them into electrical contact. Volta
thought this possible but by experiment
ing further he finally came to the conclu
sion that the muscle of the frog was
nothing more than a very delicate electro
meter and he made use of it as such.
Gradually he formulated his famous con
tact theory and constructed what is known
as Volta’s electric pile. Volta made great
advances in his knowledge of electricity
and some of bis theories are accepted to
this day. He might have gone on and
made still more important discoveries
had his knowledge of mathematics been
more adequate, but he had to stop and
confess himself baffled. Volta died March
5, 1825.
CLAIMS THE MERMAIDS.
Great Falls People Say They Planted the
Kace lu the River.
