Leyden jar
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: A glass tube with brass crook set in a cork insulator and sealed into the top of the tube with red wax. Exterior coating of lead(?) about 1/3 of length. Three brass leaf springs are attached to the crook below the cork and make contact with an inner coating. The bottom of the tube is clear but the 2/3 clear upper section is coated with (yellowed) shellac. Unit is probably designed to hang on the prime conductor of a small static machine. This object may be disjoint from one of our electrostatic machines (such as 1983.0190.01), or it may have become separated from one of the demonstration kits (perhaps EM.318507), or it may have been received as is and was missed during processing.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The invention of Leyden jars (a way to store and concentrate static electric charges) in the 1740s was a significant step forward in electrical research. Benjamin Franklin and others began investigating electricity in an attempt to understand how Leyden jars functioned. This jar was designed to attach to the prime conductor of an electrostatic generating machine to accumulate charge.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2023.0177.35
label: accession number
content: 2023.0177
label: catalog number
content: 2023.0177.35
objectType: label: Object Name
content: condenser
label: Object Name
content: capacitor
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 8 in x 1 1/2 in x 3/4 in; 20.32 cm x 3.81 cm x 1.905 cm