In 1800, Alessandro Volta sent a detailed letter describing his voltaic pile to Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society in London. The letter, written in French from Como, was read aloud at Royal Society meetings and quickly published in the society's "Philosophical Transactions," spreading knowledge of the invention across the scientific world. The announcement in London caused an immediate sensation and prompted researchers across Europe and Britain to begin experimenting with chemical electricity.

The Royal Society's publication of Volta's letter in 1800 occurred at the precise moment when the first generation of English Romantic poets, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey, were establishing their careers in London. The sudden availability of continuous electrical current became part of the intellectual atmosphere that produced some of the most important English poetry. Humphry Davy, who would become the foremost English chemist and a published poet, immediately began his electrical experiments after learning of Volta's pile, exemplifying the seamless interconnection of scientific and literary culture in this period.