Galvanized planters from the CB2 catalog.
Last week a reader (Sasha-2) asked me to resume writing this blog; her request has galvanized me into action.
To galvanize, in the sense used above, is to shock, stimulate, or excite (someone) into action. Galvanize has a second, rather dissimilar meaning. The flower pots in the picture at left are galvanized in the sense that they are made of zinc-plated steel.
What’s the connection here? Can zinc-plated steel really be all that exciting?
Both senses of galvanize derive from the electrical experiments of Luigi Galvani (1737-1798). In the 1780’s and 1790’s, Galvani showed that the application of an electric shock to the nerves of an animal could provoke muscle spasms, even if the animal was dead. This phenomenon of being “jolted” or “jump-started” into motion gives us our first sense of galvanize.
Illustration from Galvani's 1791 essay "Commentary on the Effect of Electricity on Muscular Motion." Two dissected frogs, each with a wire attached to it, are pictured. Galvani observed that "Whenever lightning flashed, all the muscles simultaneously fell into numerous violent contractions."
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Galvani’s work stimulated Alessandro Volta (whose name gives us Voltage) to develop the world’s first battery around 1800. He called it a “galvanic pile” in honor of Galvani. By 1805, another researcher had used such a battery to coat an object with a layer of gold. Today the Oscars are galvanized: a battery gives a negative charge to the Oscar, causing positively-charged gold particles (dissolved in water) to attach themselves to the surface of the Oscar.
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It was soon discovered that a similar electrical process could be used to coat steel with zinc. Zinc-plated steel is the backbone of our industrial infrastructure, because zinc protects steel against corrosion. Ironically, today’s “galvanized” steel is no longer produced by a galvanic (electrical) method. Instead, the steel is plunged into a bath of molten zinc, in what is known as the “hot-dip” process.
Iwas never going to check it, but I did always think that the word ‘galvanized’ was from someone’s last name. I suppose there are enough words derived from scientists’ last names to make this a plausible assumption. I am glad, as Sasha-2 is, that you have resumed your blog. It is great fun.