The major feat of Volta's life involved not static electricity, but dynamic electricity- the electric current. Following the experiments of Galvani, who was a friend of his and sent copies of his papers on the subject, Volta attacked the question of whether the electric current resulting when muscle was in contact with two different metals arose from the tissue or from the metals. To check this he decided in 1794 to make use of the metals alone, without the tissue. He found at once that an electric current resulted and maintained that it therefore had nothing to do with life or tissue. This sparked a controversy between the two Italians with the German Humboldt, the chief of Galvani's supporters, and the Frenchman Coulomb, the chief of Volta's. The weight of the evidence leaned more and more heavily toward Volta, and Galvani died embittered. In 1800 Volta virtually clinched the victory by constructing a device that would produce a large flow of electricity. Volta's device was an "electric battery"- the first in history. The invention of the battery lifted Volta's fame to its pinnacle. He was called to France by Napoleon in 1801 for a kind of "command performance"of his experiments. He received many medals and decorations, including the Legion of Honor, and was even made a count and, in 1810, a senator of the kingdom of Lombardy. Volta received his greatest honor, however, at the hands of no ruler, but of his fellow scientists. The unit of electromotive force- the driving force that moves the electric current- is now called the volt.