1801年12月21日,应拿破仑的邀请,伏打在法国科学院对他的发明———伏打电堆进行了演讲。当伏打演讲并演示完毕,拿破仑拉着伏打走向讲台的一侧说:“伟大而神秘的自然界面前的帷幕被天才揭开了一角。天才不多见,对他们仅仅赞赏是不够的,应该使他们得到奖励。因此,我为电学领域中天才的发明者设立20万法郎的基金。第一笔奖金,我授予帕维亚大学的亚历山德罗·伏打教授。” On December 21, 1801, at the invitation of Napoleon, Volta spoke at the French Academy of Sciences about his invention, the Volta Group. When the speech was delivered and the presentation was completed, Napoleon took V to the side of the podium and said: “The screen before the great and mysterious natural interface was lifted by a genius. Genius is rare and it is not enough to praise them. It should be enough. To reward them, I set up a fund of 200,000 francs for talented inventors in the electrical field. The first prize I gave to Professor Alessandro Volta at the University of Pavia.”