Set of four Leiden jars, John Cuthbertson, Amsterdam, 1775-1800
Inv V09788

The nice thing about an electrostatic generator is that you can electrify all kinds of things with it, i.e. charge them electrically. If you do so according to the rules, nothing special happens, but in 1746 an assistant of the Leiden professor Petrus van Musschenbroek did not follow the rules. In electrifying water he held the jar in his hand. In this way he unwittingly created a condenser, and in this way the inoffensive spark of the electric discharge was turned into a dangerous shock. Van Musschenbroek wanted to experience for himself the pain felt by his assistant, and he also got the shock of his life. He wrote to a friend in Paris, that he would never wish to repeat the terrible experiment, not even for the crown of France. Of course everyone was just as curious as the people on Leiden, and despite the warning many people in Paris also received shocks from that strange jar from Leiden.