Wagner plate-type static electric machine
date: label: Date made
content: C. 1900
label: date made
content: ca. 1900
label: date made
content: ca 1900
name: label: maker
content: Robbins & Myers Co.
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: People from ancient times knew that rubbing certain materials and then touching something caused a spark. Studying what is called electrostatics laid the groundwork for understanding electricity and magnetism. Natural philosophers, scientists, and instrument makers created many ingenious devices to generate electrostatic charges starting in the 1600s. These machines varied in size and technique but all involved rotary motion to generate a charge, and a means of transferring the charge to a storage device for use.
label: Description (Brief)
content: In the latter 1700s electrical researchers adopted improved electrostatic machines that replaced earlier glass cylinders with a flat glass plate. This increased the machines’ efficiency by passing the glass plate between leather rubbing pads that increased the surface contact area. Experience with plate machines brought many design variations, with sizes ranging from small table-top units for laboratory use to large cabinets that powered early x-ray machines.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Electrostatic machines remained useful even after the development of generators that produced direct and alternating currents. This large machine, produced around 1900 by R. V. Wagner of Chicago used a Robbins & Myers alternating current motor to drive the plates that generated the electrostatic charge. The machine produced x-rays used in medical treatments and has eight plates, four of mica and four of glass. Two large Leyden jars store the charge. The two drawers contain electrodes, inhalers and the instruction book.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Company founder Rome V. Wagner, MD (1869-1908), Professor of Electro-Therapeutics at Jenner Medical College, invented this machine. In January 1908 he published a paper describing an automatic time switch that would shut off an x-ray machine, eliminating the need for the physician to be present during treatment. Sadly, the invention came too late for Dr. Wagner himself. Two months later the Journal of the American Medical Association reported his death from skin cancer attributed to x-ray research. They noted that, “the number of fatalities of this sort is now large, and it furnishes a pitiful tribute to the enthusiasm of the early worker in this fascinating field.”
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Fred C. Reed
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.310373.1
label: catalog number
content: 310373.1
label: accession number
content: 117429
objectType: label: Object Name
content: electrostatic generator
label: Object Name
content: Static Machine
label: Object Name
content: electrostatic machine
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 68 in x 54 in; 172.72 cm x 137.16 cm