The history of the name / A história do nome

CASA PALISSY GALVANI

The history of the name

The history of the name of "CASA PALISSY GALVANI" is intrinsically linked to the history of the research and development electricity and on electrical applications, observed through the eyes of an entrepreneur who was founding a company in 1895, with the main goal of trading "electrical equipments".

​The Electricity in Portugal

It was only in 1878 that, by request of the Royal Family, the first arc lamps were imported and installed at the Citadel of Cascais, to celebrate the birthday of King Carlos.
Next, the electrical street lights reached Chiado, the fancy city center block and S. Carlos Theater (1886) was the first to have interior electrification, followed by Arsenal Marinha Grande (1887) and a few others. It was only in 1891 that the first public lighting company in Lisbon was born, based on the fusion between Companhia Lisbonense de Iluminação a Gás and Companhia do Gás, under the name CRGE – Companhias Reunidas de Gás e Electricidade, with the right to produce, distribute and sell gas and electricity for public, domestic and industrial purposes in the Lisbon area.


 

The Name

The Casa Palissy Galvani was established in 1895. It was working with the latest technology. It was normal thatit would seek a trade name that would honour, according to its founder, the people who led to the use of this new form of energy, which was completely revolutionizing the way and the quality of life of Mankind.

The range of products to be sold were electrical equipments (bulbs, voltaic batteries, switches, bells ...) and insulating products (refractory ceramics, ebonites, mica ...).


The choice focused on Bernard Palissy and Luigi Galvani.

The first one, ceramist of the 16th century, passionate student of nature, natural sciences and the origin of fossils, lived obsessed with perfection in the production of ceramic glaze, causing him to endanger the survival of its own family. He was later adopted by Catarina De Medicis and taken to Paris where he developed his studies and created the "Palissy" style with the introduction of animals and elements of nature in the decoration of his artworks (see Facts). His studies influenced the glazing ceramic technique and its durability.

Luigi Galvani (2nd half of the 18th century) was a physiologist, physician, researcher and professor of anatomy, among other scientific activities. It was during anatomy experiments with frogs that he concluded that the electric current had origin in animal muscles. He discovered the "bioelectricity".

It is important to note that in the 18th century several scientists (Von Kleist, Leiden, B. Franklin, Priestley, Coulomb, ...) worked and studied electricity, but essentially in the static electricity field.

Not being a physicist, Galvani remained intransigent on the uniqueness of his theory, making another scientist, a well known physicist, to prove that it was not only through organic tissue that electricity was produced.

The well known physicist was Alessandro Volta. In this quarrel he created the first source of electrical energy, reliable and stable -a voltaic pile, or simply a battery.

Galvani’s influence on Volta´s investigation was considered so important that his name is connected to the "plating" process.

But there was another being that was honored by the founders of Casa Palissy Galvani - the FROG.

The key element in Galvani´s experiments was immortalized in the company logo.