The invention of Fettuccine Alfredo

In the 1914, a Roman restaurateur named Alfredo di Lelio is credited with the invention of Fettuccine Alfredo.

He came with recipe in order to tempt his pregnant wife who had become weak from loss of appetite.

Di Lelio determined to get her to eat, transformed his fettuccine al-burro – a homely preparation of pasta tossed with butter and parmesan – by significant increasing the amount of butter he used.

The result was a more lavish dish, which neither his wife nor his customers could resist.

Di Lelio’s signature dish was prepared tableside; as the heat from the noodles melted the butter, the smiling and mustachioed di Lelio lifted and twirled the fettuccine with a gold fork and spoon, pausing to sprinkle in copious amount of grated cheese.

While the original consisted simply of butter and cheese, ‘Alfredo’ has become ubiquitous term that covers everything from a rich sauce to additions of vegetables, chicken, and seafood.

The dish and its creator became famous in Rome, but they were unknown outside of Italy until 1920, when George Rector an American restsaurant owner, writer and bon vivant, sang their praises in his Saturday Evening Post column

Fettuccini Alfredo achieved world fame in 1920 when Hollywood legends Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford dined at his restaurant while honeymoon in Rome, they were so pleased with the dish that they presented Alfredo with a gold plated fork and spoon.

In 1966, food packagers jumped on the trend the Pennsylvania Dutch noodle company started marketing fettuccini with a recipe from Alfredo’s sauce.
The invention of Fettuccine Alfredo

The invention of chemical battery by Alessandro Volta

In Baghdad, archeologists discovered what they think was an electric cell made in ancient Babylon in about 500 BC. The cell consisted of a clay rod inside a copper cylinder.

The real history of modern battery development began in the 1790s, when Italian scientist Professor of Natural Philosophy (physic) at the University of Pavia, Alessandro Volta made the first modern electric cell. 

Volta’s famous experiment, described in a letter to the Royal Society of London in 1800, consisted of a disc of zinc and a disc of silver separated by cloth soaked in salt solution.

Volta placed many cells on top each other to make a battery. A continuous current of electricity was produced as soon as the two (silver disc and zinc disc) were connected by a wire conductor.

Volta became famous because of this invention and the words ‘volt’ and ‘voltage’ are named in honor of him.

Known as a ‘pile’, Volta presented his new invention – the Voltaic Cell to Napoleon Bonaparte in 1801, and became the father of the world first ‘dry’ battery.

Volta theory, that the joining of the metals themselves created the current, was not quite accurate. Several years later Michael Faraday and others proved that the current resulted from the chemical action of the salt solution on the metals.

The next step in the development of batteries was the invention of the Daniel cell by John Daniell, Professor of Chemistry at King’s College, London.
The invention of chemical battery by Alessandro Volta