The first extends from the date of publication of Gilbert's great treatise in 1600 to the invention by Volta of the voltaic pile and the first production of the electric current in 1799.
Oersted's important discovery was the fact that when a wire joining the end plates of a voltaic pile is held near a pivoted magnet or compass needle, the latter is deflected and places itself more or less transversely to the wire, the direction depending upon whether the wire is above or below the needle, and on the manner in which the copper or zinc ends of the pile are connected to it.
This led him about 1799 to devise his famous voltaic pile consisting of disks of copper and zinc or other metals with wet cloth placed between the pairs.
By the summer of 1800 the news of the voltaic pile was spreading across Europe.
The first experiment which he has recorded was the construction of a voltaic pile with seven halfpence, seven disks of sheet zinc, and six pieces of paper moistened with salt water.