The document discusses the history and workings of the voltaic cell, which was an early battery invented by Alessandro Volta in the late 1700s. It describes how Voltaic cells consist of a glass jar containing sulfuric acid solution, with a zinc plate serving as the anode and a copper plate as the cathode. When the copper and zinc plates are connected by a wire through a small lamp, the lamp will turn on as electric current flows. However, the lamp only remains lit briefly before dimming out due to a process called polarization, where hydrogen gas bubbles form on the copper plate and disrupt the electric current.