Gaston Plante (1834-1889), French physicist. Plante is famous for inventing the lead-acid battery in 1859. In 1854 he became a lecture assistant at the Paris-based Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers. Following his invention of the lead-acid battery, he was made Professor of Physics at the Association Polytechnique pour le Developpement de l'Instruction Populaire (1860). The invention of the battery was a good example of the ability to change energy from one form to another. Artwork from A Travers l'Electricite (G. Dary, Paris, 1900).