Vasily Petrov was born in the town of Oboyan, Belgorod Province, Russian Empire, in the family of a priest.

The chapters, describing luminosity of phosphors of mineral and organic origins have elicited vivid interest in scientific circles.

In 1802, Petrov discovered the electric arc effect, thanks to his building the world's largest and most powerful Voltaic pile at the time, which consisted of around 4,200 copper and zinc discs.

[5] A copy of "News of Galvanic-Voltaic Experiments" was discovered by chance in a library in the town of Vilna near the end of the 19th century.

The book was the first time in world literature that a series of important physical phenomena related to electricity were described in detail.