Globe-type Electrostatic Machine
date: label: date made
content: 1897-05-25
label: date loaned
content: 1897-06-04
name: label: maker
content: Model Shop, United States National Museum
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: This ½ scale-model of Benjamin Franklin’s electrostatic generator was made in 1897 in the Smithsonian’s model shop based on drawings of a machine at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Their machine “was received by the Franklin Institute from Dr. J. Redmond Coxe in 1826 who said that the machine had belonged to Franklin himself.” Smithsonian curator George C. Maynard paid $25 for drawings of the Franklin Institute’s machine and then displayed this model at the 1897 Nashville Exposition.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Early electrostatic machines generated a charge by spinning a globe against a pad. The charge could then be used directly in experiments or transferred from the globe to a Leyden jar. This model differs somewhat from the Franklin-style machine collected over a half century later (catalog # EM.325513) but shows the basic design of a rotating glass globe, leather rubbing pad and brass charge collector. The Smithsonian preserves many authentic pieces of the past but occasionally uses reproductions and models when original objects no longer exist or would be impossible to display.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
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content: Electrostatic Machines
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.181501
label: catalog number
content: 181501
label: nonaccession number
content: 1987.3093
objectType: label: Object Name
content: scale model electrostatic machine
label: Object Name
content: electrostatic generator
label: Other Terms
content: scale model electrostatic machine; Electrostatic Devices
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 84.5 cm x 30.8 cm x 39.4 cm; 33 1/4 in x 12 1/8 in x 15 1/2 in