Electric organ (biology) in research because of their resemblance to nerve-muscle junctions. The stack of electrocytes has long been compared to a voltaic pile, and may even have inspired the invention of the battery, since the analogy was already noted by Alessandro Volta. While the electric organ is structurally similar to a battery, its cycle of operation is more like a Marx generator, in that the individual elements are slowly charged in parallel, then suddenly and nearly simultaneously discharged in series to produce a high voltage pulse. To discharge the electrocytes at the correct time, the electric eel uses its pacemaker nucleus, a
Volta Prize the first practical electric motor used in industry. One of its most notable awards was made in 1880, when Alexander Graham Bell received the fourth edition of the Volta Prize for the invention of the telephone. Among the committee members who judged were Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas, fils. Since Bell was himself becoming more affluent, he used the prize money to create institutions in and around Washington, D.C., including the prestigious Volta Laboratory Association in 1880 (also known as the" 'Volta Laboratory' "and as the" 'Alexander Graham Bell Laboratory"') precursor to Bell Labs, with his endowment fund (the" 'Volta