Name/Title
Battery JarEntry/Object ID
2020.12.2Description
The Battery Jar, also known as the Leyden Jar, for it’s 1745 inventor German cleric Edward George von Kiest and Dutch scientist Peter van Mosschenbroek from the city of Leiden, Holland. The Leyden Jar is basically an early capacitor (condenser) storage device that utilized Galvanic (direct current) from a electrostatic generator. It was sometime used by the Victorian medical profession in the late 18th century for electrotherapy by treating diseases using electric shock. It continued to be employed by some practitioners up until the late 19th century to elicit muscle contractions as well as to stimulate digestion and to reduce ulcers. The choice of polarity for the area of treatment depended on a physician’s desired effect. A positive current promoted desirable outcomes while negative currents were proclaimed to reduce undesirable symptoms at the affected area. The Leyden jars were also used much more successfully in the early spark-gap radio industry as a battery source of energy at this time.