Volta Prize

The Volta Prize (French: prix Volta) was originally established by Napoleon III during the Second French Empire in 1852 to honor Alessandro Volta, an Italian physicist noted for developing the electric battery.^[1][2] This international prize awarded 50,000 French francs^[1][2][3] to extraordinary scientific discoveries related to electricity. The prize was instituted by the Ministry of Public Instruction with the personal funding of the French Emperor,^[2] the selection committee was usually constituted by members of the French Academy of Sciences.^[1]

Notable recipients have included, Heinrich Ruhmkorff, who commercialised the induction coil, and Zénobe Gramme, inventor of the Gramme dynamo and the first practical electric motor used in industry.

One of its most notable awards was made in 1880, when Alexander Graham Bell received the fourth edition of the Volta Prize for the invention of the telephone. Among the committee members who judged were Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas, fils.^{[4][better source needed]} Since Bell was himself becoming more affluent, he used the prize money to create institutions in and around Washington, D.C., including the prestigious Volta Laboratory Association in 1880 (also known as the 'Volta Laboratory' and as the 'Alexander Graham Bell Laboratory') precursor to Bell Labs, with his endowment fund (the 'Volta Fund'), and then in 1887 the 'Volta Bureau', which later became the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (AG Bell).

The prize was discontinued in 1888.^[3]