Hand-held plate frictional electrostatic generator
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 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: This small, hand-held electrostatic generator is unmarked so who made the unit is unknown. Presumably used for laboratory experiments it features a hard rubber disc that rubs against a single felt rubbing pad. The disc is mounted in a slit made in a cylindrical rod. Brass spheres are attached to each end of the rod. The crank handle on one side turns the glass plate.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Hamilton College
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.318434
label: catalog number
content: 318434
label: accession number
content: 234642
objectType: label: Object Name
content: electrostatic generator
label: Object Name
content: Electrostatic Machine
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 33.7 cm x 12 cm x 9 cm; 13 9/32 in x 4 23/32 in x 3 17/32 in