The Leyden Jar
The Leyden Jar was invented around 1745 by Dutchman Pieter van Musschenbroek in the Netherlands and E. Georg von Kleist in Germany. but named after the University of Leiden because of the experimentation and published work they done with the jar. This invention allowed the storage of electricity by the experimenter and be moved somewhere else to be used. Shortly after the discovery of the Leyden jar, an American, Benjamin Franklin, became the first electrical experimenter to understand and explain how it functioned (PV 2). Based off his other observations, he realized that the electrical energy had both positive and negative charges. Presently, people know that Franklin's early experimentation with this invention produced radio waves.
Although Leyden Jars allowed the storage and dissipation of electricity, there were still issues present. One issue was the lack of energy from the charge. While it could only attract small objects like a bit of paper, that was all it could basically do. Also, it could only perform that function after the jar was charged, which also took lots of time.
References
"PV Scientific Instruments." About Leyden Jars. PV Scientific Instruments, n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2013.
"Telecommunications Virtual Museum." Telecommunications Virtual Museum. Telecommunications History Group, n.d. Web.
06 Feb. 2013.
"Telecommunications Virtual Museum." Telecommunications Virtual Museum. Telecommunications History Group, n.d. Web.
06 Feb. 2013.