Sunday, April 6, 2008

Blog Post #63

Pieter van Masschenbroek designed the Leyden Jar to store electric charge in 1975. It was originally made by okaying water into a glass bottle. The water acted as the conductor. A metal wire was then passed through the cork that closed the jar. The design later changed to used metal foil. The new jar was then chared by an electrostatic generator. The inner and outer surfaces store opposite charges that were of equal quantities.
The Wimshurst Machine, designed around 1880 by James Wimshurt is used to generate high voltages. Two large contra-rotating disks are mounted in vertical plan along with two metallic brushes as cross bars, and also included a spark gap. The electric charge is created through electrostatic induction. These two insulated disks and metal cross bars rotate in opposite directions which create an imbalance of charges. Sparks jump across the gap since the positive feedback increases until the dielectric breakdown voltage of the air is reached.

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