The second dates from Volta's discovery to the discovery by Faraday in 1831 of the induction of electric currents and the creation of currents by the motion of conductors in magnetic fields, which initiated the era of modern electrotechnics.
The greater part of the colony lies west and north of the chain and belongs to the basin of the Volta.
Volta's cell consists essentially of two plates of different metals, such as zinc and copper, connected by an electrolyte such as a solution of salt or acid.
The electromotive force of Volta's simple cell falls off rapidly when the cell is used, and this phenomenon was shown to be due to the accumulation at the metal plates of the products of chemical changes in the cell itself.
The first suggestion for a machine of the above kind seems to have grown out of the invention of Volta's electrophorus.