The Volta prize was inspired on the earlier French Academy of SciencesGalvanism Prize (French: Prix du galvanisme) created by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1801.[5][3] A Grand Prize of 60,000 francs and a medal of 30,000 francs to be given for discoveries similar to those of Volta and Benjamin Franklin.[5][6] The Grand Prize never found a deserving recipient.[5]
Only four recipients received a secondary reward of 30,000 francs from the Galvanism Prize:
Additionally, the founder of the Volta prize and next Emperor of the French, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (Napoleon III), nephew of Bonaparte, was himself very invested in the development of electric science. He presented his own voltaic pile at the French Academy of Sciences in 1843, made out of a single metal and two acid solutions.[7]
Nomination rules and prize
The rules of the Volta Prize were decreed by Napoleon III in Paris, on 23 February 1852.[1] The decree contains five articles:
Article 1: A prize of 50,000 French francs to be awarded to new applications of the voltaic pile in the fields of industry and heat sources, public lightning, chemistry, mechanics, and/or medicine.[note 1]
Article 2: Scientists and inventors from all nationalities are admitted in the competition.[note 2]
Article 3: The prize is open to claim for five years.[note 3]
Article 4: A committee is to be established to analyse the breakthrough of each of the contestants and to recognize if it fills the necessary conditions.[note 4]
Article 5: The Ministers of France are in charge of the execution of the present decree.[note 5]
The articles descriptions above are not a literal translation from the original French articles.
The sum of money, 50,000 francs, was approximately $10,000 US dollars at that time[8] (about $330,000 in current dollars[9]), more than five times the annual salary of a Paris Faculty Professor at that time.[2] Between the members of the committee, Edmond Becquerel and Jean-Baptiste Dumas were known to be reporters in certain editions.[1][3]
Original French article: Un prix de cinquante mille francs est institué en faveur de l'auteur de la découverte qui rendra la pile de Volta applicable avec économie:Soit à l'industrie, comme source de chaleur; soit à l'éclairage; soit à la Chimie; soit à la Mécanique; soit à la Médecine pratique
Original French article: Il sera nommé une Commission chargée d'examiner la découverte de chacun des concurrents et de reconnaître si elle remplit les conditions requises.
John L. Davis. Artisans and savants: The Role of the Academy of Sciences in the Process of Electrical Innovation in France, 1850–1880, Annals of Science, Volume 55, Issue 3, July 1998, pg. 300.
Deprouw, Stéphanie (2008). "Un héritage des Bonaparte: Le Prix du galvanisme, 1802–1815, et le Prix Volta, 1852–1888. L'Etat et l'encouragement à la recherche sur l'électricité". École Nationale des Chartes. Paris.
Crosland, Maurice (1992). Science Under Control: the French Academy of Sciences 1795-1914. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p.23. ISBN978-0521413732. OCLC301128230.
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