2-623-836 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The discovery of the Leyden Jar, 1745 (1894). An experiment conducted by Dutch scientist Pieter van Musschenbroek. Musschenbroeck (1692-1761) and his student, Andrea Cunaeus, invented a cheap and convenient device for storing an electric charge. The Leyden jar, named after the Dutch town where it was devised, was the first device that could store large amounts of charge and consisted of a glass phial which was partially filled with water and contained a thick conducting wire. The jar was charged by bringing an exposed end of this conducting wire into contact with a friction device that generated static electricity. From A Popular History of Science, by Robert Routledge, BSc (Lond.), F.C.S. [George Routledge & Sons, Limited., London, 1894]