Leyden Jar

A Leyden jar is an electrical component that stores a high-voltage electric charge between conductors on the inside and outside of a glass jar, typically a glass container lined inside and out with metal foil and fitted with a metal terminal reaching down to the inner foil; it was the original form of the capacitor. The German cleric Ewald Georg von Kleist discovered the effect independently on October 11, 1745, and the Dutch scientist Pieter van Musschenbroek of Leiden made the same discovery in 1745 and 1746, giving the device its name. The Leyden jar gave experimenters the first practical means of accumulating and discharging large quantities of electric charge at will, making it central to early research into electrostatics and electrical conduction.