Imagine a world without electricity. There would be no mobile phones, no Internet, no electric lights, no ovens, etc. All these technologies are made possible by our ability to not only generate, but also store electricity (short or long-term). And this we owe to the Leiden discovery by Pieter van Musschenbroek.
The storage of electricity takes place inside an apparatus that engineers call a condenser. The very first electrical condenser was the so-called Leyden Jar, a device invented in 1746 by Leiden physicist Pieter van Musschenbroek.
Van Musschenbroek was born in Leiden in 1692. From an early age he showed signs of intelligence and talent. While modern-day school pupils with a gift for science often have no clue about languages, Van Musschenbroek mastered Latin, Greek, French, German, English, Spanish and Italian at the Latin School.
He then proceeded to complete three study programmes at Leiden University: in physics, mathematics and medicine. After his studies he attended lectures by Newton. He later also wrote textbooks on the ideas of this famous British physicist. Thanks to his 1726 book Elements of Physics, Van Musschenbroek may even be considered to be one of the most important disseminators of Newton’s ideas in Europe. Van Musschenbroek became one of Europe’s most prominent physicists of the 18th century.
A letter to his friend French naturalist René-Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur reveals that Van Musschenbroek may also have been the first person on earth to receive an electric shock from artificially generated electricity. ‘My right hand suddenly started to shake violently, and my entire body vibrated as if struck by love at first sight,’ he wrote.
Although the Leyden Jar is his most famous invention, Van Musschenbroek also devised other instruments. For example, he developed the tribometer (to measure the force of friction), the atmometer (evaporative meter) and the pyrometer (a thermometer for measuring high temperatures).
Van Musschenbroek gained international fame for his work and his inventions. He was appointed as a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the French Académie des Sciences and the Royal Society in London. Pieter van Musschenbroek died in Leiden in 1761.
Van Musschenbroek’s most famous invention lives on. Every day you unsuspectingly enjoy its fruits. If you are reading this text on a smartphone, you are right now holding in your hand at least five hundred (!) smaller, more modern versions of this Leiden invention.
