Photovoltaics years in Northern Europe. The term "photovoltaic" comes from the Greek φῶς ("phōs") meaning "light", and from "volt", the unit of electro-motive force, the volt, which in turn comes from the last name of the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta, inventor of the battery (electrochemical cell). The term "photo-voltaic" has been in use in English since 1849. Photovoltaics are best known as a method for generating electric power by using solar cells to convert energy from the sun into a flow of electrons by the photovoltaic effect. Solar cells produce direct current electricity from sunlight which can be used to power
Abraham Bennet Abraham Bennet Abraham Bennet FRS (baptised 20 December 1749 - buried 9 May 1799) was an English clergyman and physicist, the inventor of the gold-leaf electroscope and developer of an improved magnetometer. Though he was cited by Alessandro Volta as a key influence on his own work, Bennet's work was curtailed by the political turbulence of his time. Abraham was baptised in Taxal, Derbyshire, the son of another Abraham Bennet, a schoolmaster, and his wife Ann "née" Fallowes. There is no record of him having attended university but he is recorded as a teacher at Wirksworth Grammar School as "MA".