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Leyden jar

Early water-filled Leyden jar, consisting of a bottle with a metal spike through its stopper to make contact with the water
Later, more common type using metal foil, 1919

A Leyden jar (or Leiden jar, or archaically, Kleistian jar) is an electrical component that stores a high-voltage electric charge (from an external source) between electrical conductors on the inside and outside of a glass jar. It typically consists of a glass jar with metal foil cemented to the inside and the outside surfaces, and a metal terminal projecting vertically through the jar lid to make contact with the inner foil. It was the original form of the capacitor[1] (also called a condenser).[2]

Its invention was a discovery made independently by German cleric Ewald Georg von Kleist on 11 October 1745 and by Dutch scientist Pieter van Musschenbroek of Leiden (Leyden), Netherlands in 1745–1746.[3]

The Leyden jar was used to conduct many early experiments in electricity, and its discovery was of fundamental importance in the study of electrostatics. It was the first means of accumulating and preserving electric charge in large quantities that could be discharged at the experimenter's will, thus overcoming a significant limit to early research into electrical conduction.[4] Leyden jars are still used in education to demonstrate the principles of electrostatics.

  1. ^ Dummer, G. W. A. (1997). Electronic Inventions and Discoveries, 4th Ed. Institute of Physics Publishing. p. 1. ISBN 978-0750303767.
  2. ^ Carman, A.P. (1916). "Electricity and magnetism". In Duff, A.W. (ed.). A Text-Book of Physics (4th ed.). Philadelphia: Blakiston's Son. p. 361.
  3. ^ Heilbron, J.L. (1979). Electricity in the 17th and 18th Centuries: A Study of Early Modern Physics. University of California Press. p. 309. ISBN 978-0-520-03478-5. "Pieter (Petrus) van Musschenbroek". Compilation of biographies about Musschenbroek available from the Internet. 22 May 2004. Archived from the original on 2009-03-26.
  4. ^ Baigrie, B. (2007). Electricity and Magnetism: A Historical Perspective. Greenwood Press. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-313-33358-3.
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