Happy National Battery Day! Get charged up on Feb. 18th

What products are available in all different shapes and sizes and packed full of power? They are used in phones, remote controls, toys, tools, computers and electronic gadgets. They’re even used in automobiles. Batteries! Just image where we’d be without these handy dandy sources of power! Today is National Battery Day, an annual “holiday” observed on February 18. This yearly event commemorates the birth of an Italian physicist and pioneer, Alessandro Volta, who was born on this day back in 1745.

Folks have been getting a real “charge” out of batteries for centuries. In fact, people have been using batteries since Count Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta invented them in 1800. After Luigi Galvani’s series of “animal electricity” experiments using frog legs, Volta went on to create the forerunner of the electric battery, the Voltaic Pile. Volta demonstrated his invention to Napoleon Bonaparte who later made him a count for his electrifying discovery.

Volta died on March 5, 1827, but the battery continued to evolve. French physicist Gaston Plante invented the first rechargeable battery in 1859 and Waldmar Jungner invented the first nickel-cadmium battery in 1899.

And speaking of batteries – today serves as the perfect reminder to check or change the batteries in those life-saving devices like smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors.

February 18 is also National Drink Wine Day! Cheers!