The Ancient Greeks already knew that pieces of amber could attract lightweight particles after being rubbed. The amber becomes electrified by the triboelectric effect, … See more

A typical design consists of a glass jar with conducting tin foil coating the inner and outer surfaces. The foil coatings stop short of the mouth of the … See more

The Leyden jar is a high-voltage device; it is estimated that at a maximum the early Leyden jars could be charged to 20,000 to 60,000 volts. The center rod electrode has a metal ball on the end to prevent leakage of the charge into the air by corona discharge. … See more

The Leyden jar was effectively discovered independently by two parties: German dean Ewald Georg von Kleist, who made the first discovery, … See more

Within months after Musschenbroek's report about how to reliably create a Leyden jar, other electrical researchers were making and experimenting with their own Leyden jars. One of his expressed original interests was to see if the total possible charge … See more

It was initially believed that the charge was stored in the water in early Leyden jars. In the 1700s American statesman and scientist See more

Beginning in the late 18th century it was used in the Victorian medical field of electrotherapy to treat a variety of diseases by electric shock. By the middle of the 19th century, … See more