Group 12 element people in the 17th century. German chemist Andreas Marggraf is usually given credit for discovering pure metallic zinc in a 1746 experiment by heating a mixture of calamine and charcoal in a closed vessel without copper to obtain a metal. Experiments on frogs by the Italian doctor Luigi Galvani in 1780 with brass paved the way for the discovery of electrical batteries, galvanization and cathodic protection. In 1880, Galvani's friend, Alessandro Volta, invented the Voltaic pile. The biological importance of zinc was not discovered until 1940 when carbonic anhydrase, an enzyme that scrubs carbon dioxide from blood, was shown to
Francis Metallic Surfboat Francis Metallic Surfboat The Francis Metallic Surfboat is a boat, currently housed at 130 West Center Street in Douglas, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015. It is one of two known surviving examples of its kind, one of the first type of coastal rescue craft used. The Francis Metallic Surfboat was designed by Joseph Francis, an inventor who specialized in inventing and constructing maritime lifesaving equipment. Francis constructed 137 of these vessels from about 1849 to 1857, of which 48 were used on the Great Lakes. This particular boat dates from approximately 1854,