William Robert Grove

William Robert Grove was a Welsh scientist and judge who in 1839 built the first fuel cell, a device he called the gas voltaic battery, demonstrating that hydrogen and oxygen could be combined electrochemically to generate an electric current and water as the only byproduct. Groves device predated any practical application by more than a century, and fuel cells were largely a laboratory curiosity until NASA adopted them to generate electricity and drinking water aboard crewed spacecraft in the 1960s. The hydrogen fuel cell Grove first demonstrated is now central to modern efforts to use hydrogen as a clean energy carrier for vehicles, backup power and grid storage. He continued a distinguished parallel career as a judge while remaining an active scientist, and his invention is recognized as the founding demonstration of fuel cell technology.