The walnut-wood box contains three pairs of dry cells (so-called due to the lack of a liquid electrolyte) designed in 1812 by the Italian physicist Giuseppe Zamboni (1776-1846). These consist of a stack of paper discs, each with manganese dioxide powder glued on one face and a thin sheet of tin on the other. The discs are tied together with thin silk threads and covered with a solid insulator. The cylinders’ external contacts are connected to the pile’s positive and negative terminals (respectively manganese dioxide and tin) and to the two brass caps placed at the top of the glass tubes on the upper part of the instrument. There was an oscillating apparatus (now missing) between the two terminals.

The instrument was part of the bequest of Francesco Maccarani (1776 – 1846), who taught at the Liceo Dipartimentale in Bergamo from 1801 until 1845.

Device on display.