Editing Leyden jar (section)

== Discovery ==
[[file:Andreas Cunaeus discovering the Leyden jar.png|thumb|Discovery of the Leyden jar in van Musschenbroek's lab. The static electricity produced by the rotating glass sphere [[electrostatic generator]] was conducted by the chain through the suspended bar to the water in the glass held by Andreas Cunaeus. A large charge accumulated in the water and an opposite charge in Cunaeus's hand on the glass. When he touched the wire dipping in the water, he received a powerful shock]]

The Leyden jar was effectively discovered independently by two parties: German [[dean (Christianity)|dean]] [[Ewald Georg von Kleist]], who made the first discovery, and Dutch scientists [[Pieter van Musschenbroek]] and Andreas Cunaeus, who figured out why it only worked when held in the hand.<ref>{{Gutenberg |bullet=none |no=5641 |name=Man or Matter |first=Ernst |last=Lehrs |access-date=2017-05-12 |author-link=Ernst Lehrs |orig-year=1951 |publisher=Klostermann |year=1953 |edition=3rd  |ISBN= 3-465-00285-7}}</ref>

=== Von Kleist ===
[[file:Leidse flessen Museum Boerhave december 2003 2.jpg|thumb|left|upright|A [[battery (electricity)|battery]] of four water-filled Leyden jars, [[Museum Boerhaave]], Leiden]]

[[Ewald Georg von Kleist]] was the [[dean (Christianity)|dean]] at the cathedral of [[Kamień Pomorski|Cammin]] in [[Pomerania]], a region now divided between Germany and Poland. Von Kleist is credited with first using the [[Hydraulic analogy|fluid analogy for electricity]] and demonstrated this to Bose by drawing sparks from water with his finger.<ref>Sela, Andrea. 28 March 2017. Von Kleist's jar. Chemistry World, Royal Society of Chemistry 2021.</ref> He discovered the immense storage capability of the Leyden jar while attempting to demonstrate that a glass jar filled with alcohol would "capture" this fluid.<ref>Thomas S. Kuhn, ''The Structure of Scientific Revolutions'' (Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 1996) p. 17.</ref>

In October 1745, von Kleist tried to accumulate electricity in a small medicine bottle filled with alcohol with a nail inserted in the cork. He was following up on an experiment developed by [[Georg Matthias Bose]] where electricity had been sent through water to set alcoholic spirits alight. He attempted to charge the bottle from a large prime conductor (invented by Bose) suspended above his friction machine.

Von Kleist knew that the glass would provide an obstacle to the escape of the "fluid", and so was convinced that a substantial electric charge could be collected and held within it. He received a significant shock from the device when he accidentally touched the nail through the cork while still cradling the bottle in his other hand. He communicated his results to at least five different electrical experimenters,<ref>{{Cite book | last = Heilbron| first = J. L.| author-link=John L. Heilbron | title = Electricity in the 17th and 18th Centuries: A Study of Early Modern Physics|publisher = [[University of California Press]]|year = 1979|page = 311|isbn= 978-0-520-03478-5|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=UlTLRUn1sy8C&pg=PA311}}</ref> in several letters from November 1745 to March 1746, but did not receive any confirmation that they had repeated his results, until April 1746.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Silva|first1=C. S.|last2=Heering|first2=P. | title=Re-examining the early history of the Leiden jar: Stabilization and variation in transforming a phenomenon into a fact| journal=History of Science|volume=56|issue=3|pages=314–342| date=2018| doi=10.1177/0073275318768418|pmid=29683000|s2cid=5112189}}</ref> [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|Polish-Lithuanian]] physicist [[Daniel Gralath]] learned about von Kleist's experiment from seeing von Kleist's letter to [[Paul Swietlicki]], written in November 1745. After Gralath's failed first attempt to reproduce the experiment in December 1745, he wrote to von Kleist for more information (and was told that the experiment would work better if the tube half-filled with alcohol was used). Gralath (in collaboration with {{ill |Gottfried Reyger|de}}) succeeded in getting the intended effect on 5 March 1746, holding a small glass medicine bottle with a nail inside in one hand, moving it close to an electrostatic generator, and then moving the other hand close to the nail.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Silva|first1=C. S.|last2=Heering|first2=P. | title=Re-examining the early history of the Leiden jar: Stabilization and variation in transforming a phenomenon into a fact| journal=History of Science|volume=56|issue=3|pages=314–342| date=2018| doi=10.1177/0073275318768418 |pmid=29683000|s2cid=5112189}}</ref> Von Kleist didn't understand the significance of his conducting hand holding the bottle—and both he and his correspondents were loath to hold the device when told that the shock could throw them across the room. It took some time before von Kleist's student associates at Leyden worked out that the hand provided an essential element.{{citation needed|date=May 2018|reason=Kleist did not have student associates in Leiden}}

=== Musschenbroek and Cunaeus ===
The Leyden jar's invention was long credited to [[Pieter van Musschenbroek]], the physics professor at [[Leiden University]], who also ran a family [[foundry]] which cast [[brass]] [[cannonette]]s, and a small business (''De Oosterse Lamp'' – "The Eastern Lamp") which made [[Scientific instrument|scientific]] and [[Medical device|medical instruments]] for the new university courses in physics and for scientific gentlemen keen to establish their own [[cabinet of curiosities|'cabinets' of curiosities and instruments]].

Like von Kleist, Musschenbroek was also interested in, and attempting to repeat, Bose's experiment.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Heilbron|first1=John L.|author-link=John L. Heilbron |title=G. M. Bose: The prime mover in the invention of the Leyden jar?|journal=Isis|date=1966|volume=57|issue=2|pages=264–267|jstor=227966|doi=10.1086/350120|s2cid=144694754}}</ref> During this time, Andreas Cunaeus, a lawyer, learned about this experiment from Musschenbroek, and attempted to duplicate the experiment at home with household items.<ref name=Heilbron1979>{{cite book  |title=Electricity in the 17th and 18th centuries: a study of early Modern physics |last=Heilbron |author-link=John L. Heilbron  |first=J.L. |year=1979 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |isbn=978-0-520-03478-5 |pages=313–314 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UlTLRUn1sy8C&pg=PA313}}</ref> Unaware of the "Rule of [[Charles François de Cisternay du Fay|Dufay]]", that the experimental apparatus should be insulated, Cunaeus held his jar in his hand while charging it, and was thus the first to discover that such an experimental setup could deliver a severe [[Electrical injury|shock]].<ref name=Heilbron1979/><ref>Van Rogan A. An overview of dielectric measurements. March 1990. IEEE Transactions on Electrical Insulation 25(1):95 - 106.</ref> He reported his procedure and experience to Swiss-Dutch [[Natural philosophy|natural philosopher]] [[Jean-Nicolas-Sébastien Allamand|Jean-Nicolas-Sebastian Allamand]], Musschenbroek's colleague.  Allamand and Musschenbroek also received severe shocks.  Musschenbroek communicated the experiment in a letter from 20 January 1746 to French entomologist [[René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur]], who was Musschenbroek's appointed correspondent at the [[French Academy of Sciences|Paris Academy]]. [[Jean-Antoine Nollet|Abbé Jean-Antoine Nollet]] read this report, confirmed the experiment, and then read Musschenbroek's letter in a public meeting of the Paris Academy in April 1746<ref name=Heilbron1979/> (translating from Latin to French).<ref>Here is Nollet's own account of the event. [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k35444/f140 Observations sur quelques nouveaux phénomènes d'Électricité]" ''Mémoires de l' Académie Royale des Sciences De l'Année 1746'', Paris, 1751, pp. 1–3. The account from the Academy of Sciences only refers to the "Leyden experiment" (''l'expérience de Leyde''):  [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/87779#page/13/mode/1up Sur l'Électricité]" ''Histoire de l' Académie Royale des Sciences De l'Année 1746'', Paris, 1751, pp. 1–17.</ref>

Musschenbroek's outlet in France for the sale of his company's 'cabinet' devices was the Abbé Nollet (who started building and selling duplicate instruments in 1735<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Nollet, Jean-Antoine|edition=2nd | date=2000 | publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |encyclopedia=Concise dictionary of scientific biography |page=652|isbn=9780684806310 | url=https://archive.org/stream/concisedictionar00#page/652/mode/2up}}</ref>).  Nollet then gave the electrical storage device the name "Leyden jar" and promoted it as a special type of flask to his market of wealthy men with scientific curiosity. The "Kleistian jar" was therefore promoted as the ''Leyden jar'', and as having been discovered by [[Pieter van Musschenbroek]] and his acquaintance Andreas Cunaeus.  Musschenbroek, however, never claimed that he had invented it,<ref name=Heilbron1979/> and some think that Cunaeus was mentioned only to diminish credit to him.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Benjamin|first1=P. | author-link= Park Benjamin Jr.|title=A History of Electricity: the intellectual rise in electricity |date=1898|publisher=Wiley|page=521|url=https://archive.org/stream/cu31924004128686#page/n533/mode/2up/}} and {{cite book|last1=Abbé de Mangin|title=Histoire générale et particuliere de l'électricité|date=1752|publisher=Chez Rollin|page=30|url=https://archive.org/stream/histoiregnralee01manggoog#page/n48/mode/2up/}}</ref>