History of the electric vehicle Colten in the United States in 1847. Rechargeable batteries that provided a viable means for storing electricity on board a vehicle did not come into being until 1859, with the invention of the lead–acid battery by French physicist Gaston Planté. Camille Alphonse Faure, another French scientist, significantly improved the design of the battery in 1881; his improvements greatly increased the capacity of such batteries and led directly to their manufacture on an industrial scale. An early electric-powered two-wheel cycle was put on display at the 1867 World Exposition in Paris by the Austrian inventor Franz Kravogl, but it was regarded
Volta potential by its work function, and so dissimilar metals can show an electric potential difference even at equilibrium. The Volta potential is "not" an intrinsic property of the two bulk metals under consideration, but rather is determined by work function differences between the metals' surfaces. Just like the work function, the Volta potential depends sensitively on surface state, contamination, and so on. The potential is given by the formula: formula_1, where V is the potential, The Volta potential can be significant (of order 1 volt) but it cannot be measured directly by an ordinary voltmeter. A voltmeter does not measure vacuum