Google has honoured the inventor of the battery, Alessandro Volta, in its latest Google Doodle to mark what would have been his 270th birthday.

Volta, a physics professor at the University of Pavia, created a “voltaic pile” — a stack of alternating zinc and copper discs with interstitial pieces of brine-soaked cardboard. Just like that — voila, Doc Volta! — the electrical battery was born. For the first time, in 1800, scientists could tap a steady flow of electric energy; the revelation was a revolution, as the battery sparked a new era of invention and discovery.

Born in 1745 in the town of Como, the Italian physicist was known for the invention of an early form of battery in 1799.

He had become a professor of physics in 1774 at Como’s Royal School before going on to work on the development of the “electrophorus”, a device that produced static electricity.

Volta, who raised three sons with his wife Teresa Peregrini, was made a count in 1810 by Napoleon Bonaparte, and he retired in 1819 to his estate in Camnago, where he died in 1827.