Chemistry and Physics | What Is A Leyden Jar?
What is a Leyden jar?
A Leyden jar, an early form of the capacitor, is a crude device for accumulating and storing an electrical charge. The earliest version of the Leyden jar consisted of a glass jar filled with water or liquid mercury and plugged with a rubber stopper. There was a metal rod inserted through the stopper, one end of which extended into the liquid. The other end of the rod was connected to a machine that generated an electric charge.
An improved version consisted of a jar with a metal-foil coating on both inside and outside surfaces. The inner foil was connected to a conducting rod, which led to a conducting sphere. This eliminated the need for water or mercury.
The Leyden jar was first described in 1745 by Dutch professor E. Georg van Kleist (c.1700-1748). It was also used by Pieter van Musschenbroek (1692-1761), a professor of physics (the study of the interaction between matter and energy) at the...
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