Excerpt from The Electrical Charges of Atoms and Ions
The first attempts to explain chemical reactions by means of electrical forces date from the end of the eighteenth century, and were suggested principally by the phenomena of electrolysis. Previous to Volta's discovery of the electrical current, however, i. e., in the year 1789, Bennett published the first experiments on the electrification of two metals by contact with each other. He found that two pieces of unlike metal, after being freed from electrical charges by contact with an earthed conductor, were capable of giving opposite charges to each other when insulated and placed in contact. He gave the title "Experiments on the Adhesive Electricity of Metals and Other Conducting Substances" to his investigations and concluded that different metals have different affinities or different adhesive forces for the electrical fluid.
Six years later (in 1795) Cavallo published the results of a series of experiments on contact electrification, as a result of which he says:
I am inclined to suspect that different bodies have different capacities for holding the electric fluid, as they have for holding the elementary heat.
Meantime (in 1791) Galvani had discovered the twitching of a frog's muscles due to electrical stimulation, and Fabroni had written (in 1792) his paper entitled Upon the Chemical Working of the Different Metals Upon Each Other at Ordinary Air Temperatures and "Upon the Explanation of Certain Galvanic Phenomena." In this paper Fabroni describes a number of experiments to show that when two pieces of different metal arc placed in contact, either in air or in water, one of the metals frequently becomes more oxidizable than it was while separated from the other metal. He says:
Since the metals have relationships with each other, the molecules must mutually attract each other as soon as they come into contact. One cannot determine the force of this attraction, but I believe it to be sufficient to weaken their cohesion so that they become inclined to go into new combinations and to more easily yield to the influence of the weakest solvents.
Fabroni showed that when in contact with the nobler metals the more oxidizable metals may even dissolve in water and, in some cases, form salts which may crystallize out.
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