History of the battery his iron scalpel, the leg twitched. Galvani believed the energy that drove this contraction came from the leg itself, and called it "animal electricity". However, Alessandro Volta, a friend and fellow scientist, disagreed, believing this phenomenon was caused by two different metals joined together by a moist intermediary. He verified this hypothesis through experiment, and published the results in 1791. In 1800, Volta invented the first true battery, which came to be known as the voltaic pile. The voltaic pile consisted of pairs of copper and zinc discs piled on top of each other, separated by a layer of cloth
NZR RM class (Edison battery-electric) battery-electric railcar was introduced as a faster and more desirable alternative. It ran between Little River and Christchurch twice each way each day, completing the journey in 69 minutes. The railcar was popular with both passengers and crews; it was fast for its time for a rural train on New Zealand's national rail network, and ran cleanly and efficiently. However, it lasted a mere eight years, as it was destroyed in a depot fire in Christchurch in 1934. Conditions created by the Great Depression meant it simply was not possible to build a replacement, and the Edison battery-electric railcar's legacy