Wood engraving of electrostatic experiments
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: L'EXPERIENCE SUR L'ELECTRICITE. Engraving of an electrostatic experiment in France around 1772, after a painting by Charles A. Van Loo.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The man on the left is cranking a globe-type static machine against a pad. The woman standing on an insulated stool is Countess Du Barry, of the court of King Louis XV. In her right hand is a brass rod she is using to pick a charge off the static machine. In her right hand, another brass rod carries the charge into a Leyden jar. She feels a mild sensation as the electricity flows. The Black child is her enslaved servant Zamor, who is grounded and holding the Leyden jar in his left hand while moving his right forefinger toward the rod.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Though it looks like he is pointing, Zamor is actually about to take an electric shock from the rod. The length of the spark discharge and the severity of the shock would be a gauge of the strength of charge on the jar. This is like Benjamin Franklin moving his knuckle toward the key attached to the string of his kite. In an era before precision electrical meters, researchers deliberately took and gave shocks in the course of their experiments.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Van Loo unveiled the original L'Electricite painting at a Paris salon in late 1777. Earlier that year he had painted a portrait of Franklin, who was in Paris representing the new United States. Franklin, socially active in Paris, almost certainly saw the original painting and could have advised Van Loo on the technical details depicted in the scene.
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: EM.329188
label: catalog number
content: 329188
label: accession number
content: 280072
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Print
label: Other Terms
content: Print; Engraving
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 22 in x 16 1/2 in; 55.88 cm x 41.91 cm