Grapengiesser was the first physician to use Volta’s “pile”, the first battery, which Volta first described in print in 1800. Grapengiesser “noted that in paralyzed muscle excitability could be so poor that 150 elements were necessary to produce contraction. He placed conductors on moistened skin and found by trial and error that the best results were obtained with the zinc pole placed over the nerve trunk and the other pole over the branches of the nerve. He also noted that contraction occurred on the make and break of the circuit”. (Licht).