A galvanic cell or voltaic cell, named after the scientists Luigi Galvani and Alessandro Volta, respectively, is an electrochemical cell in which an electric current is generated from spontaneous oxidation–reduction reactions. An example of a galvanic cell consists of two different metals, each immersed in separate beakers containing their respective metal ions in solution that are connected by a salt bridge or separated by a porous membrane.
Volta was the inventor of the voltaic pile, the first electrical battery. Common usage of the word battery has evolved to include a single galvanic cell, but the first batteries had many galvanic cells.