Leyden jar facts for kids
The Leyden jar (or Leiden jar) is a special device. It helps store static electricity. Think of it like a battery for static charges! It's usually a glass bottle. This bottle has metal foil on the inside and outside. Some very old ones even used water instead of foil. Leyden jars let scientists collect a lot of electrical charge.
They were the first way to store electricity. Today, we call similar devices 'capacitors'.
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How the Leyden Jar Was Discovered
The first electrical storage jar was made by Dean Edwald von Kleist. This happened on October 11, 1745. He was a church leader in Cammin, Germany. Von Kleist wondered if static electricity could be stored in a bottle. He knew electricity could not pass through glass. He hoped to capture just a little bit. He had a small machine that made static electricity.
He was very surprised by how much electricity the bottle could hold. It was thousands of times more than he expected! Electricity kept flowing into the bottle. This happened because the outside of the bottle had a path for electricity. This path helped balance the electrical pressure.
In von Kleist's experiment, his hand was the path. He held the bottle while electricity flowed in. A nail through the cork let the charge enter the jar.
An Accidental Shock
One day, von Kleist accidentally touched the nail. He got a huge electric shock! It was so strong it threw him across the room. He had connected the electricity inside the jar to the electricity outside. These charges were opposite. So, all the stored electricity flowed through his body.
Von Kleist didn't fully understand why his jar stored so much electricity. He sent a description to his friends in Berlin. One copy reached Pieter van Musschenbroek. He was a physics professor at the University of Leyden.
Professor Musschenbroek found that holding the flask greatly improved its storage. He wrote to scientists in France about it. That's how the device got its name, the "Leyden jar."
The Leyden Jar's Importance
For many years, the Leyden jar was the main way to store electricity. It was used for experiments and demonstrations. It remained important until new inventions came along. These included chemical batteries and modern electrical generators.
Images for kids
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This picture shows the discovery of the Leyden jar. Static electricity from the spinning glass ball went through a chain to the water in the glass. A lot of charge built up in the water. An opposite charge built up in the hand holding the glass. When the person touched the wire in the water, they got a strong shock.
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A "battery" of four Leyden jars filled with water, at the Museum Boerhaave in Leiden.
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This image shows how a Leyden jar is built.
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A "dissectible" Leyden jar from 1876. You could take it apart to see how it worked.
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A Leyden jar used for measuring electricity.
See also
In Spanish: Botella de Leyden para niños
