Word: galvani
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...Last week was the death centenary of the man who first understood that electricity flows in currents measurable in pressure units. "Volts" and "voltage" were the work of Alessandro Volta (1745-1827), professor of experimental physics at the University of Pavia, Italy. His compatriot and contemporary, Luigi Galvani of Bologna, observing the spasms caused in dead frogs' muscles by contact with mixed metals and moisture had deduced that the muscles contained electricity. Volta examined the theory of "galvanism" and traced electricity, not to the muscles, but to the mixed metals and moisture. He piled pairs of silver and zinc...
Bologna also produced Luigi Galvani, in the 18th Century, whose experiments with electricity and the nerves and muscles of the legs of frogs gave rise to "galvanism" and kindred terms. But it was not until the end of the 19th Century that Bologna again made a contribution of truly world-wide proportions. After the sausage came wireless telegraphy, whose founder's marital vicissitudes loomed in the press last week as his works do every week...