Who built the first practical electric battery in 1800?

Alessandro Volta built the first practical electric battery in 1800.

His voltaic pile used alternating discs of zinc and copper separated by cloth or cardboard soaked in an electrolyte such as salt water. The arrangement produced a continuous electric current, unlike earlier electrostatic machines that delivered brief charges.

Volta’s battery grew from a dispute with Luigi Galvani, whose frog-leg experiments suggested that animal tissue generated electricity. Volta argued that the contact between different metals was central and demonstrated a repeatable chemical source instead.

The invention made sustained electrical experiments possible and quickly influenced chemistry and physics. The volt, the SI unit of electric potential difference, was later named in Volta’s honour.