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When Petrus van Musschenbroek (1692-1761) invented the “Leyden jar” in 1746, it marked an important milestone in early electricity research. It was seen that when Leyden jars were charged, sparks closely resembling tiny bolts of lightning were produced. Many natural philosophers of the time found it easy to imagine that the two phenomena were similar – or even fundamentally identical. In 1749 Benjamin Franklin argued that artificially generated electricity and the natural discharge of lightning were one and the same, a theory he proved in 1752 when he carried out his kite experiment. In September of that year he installed the first non-experimental lightning rod on the chimney of his house in Philadelphia. Within a few years his invention was already being taken up in British America and – albeit with some initial hesitation – in Europe as well. Yet the lightning rod was far from being an overnight success: it encountered scepticism and hostility from other researchers, while disagreements among experts made its introduction a problematic process. Nevertheless, its repeated effectiveness was of decisive importance: success bred success.
Shall then a man on a wire of metal, Catch and compel the celestial ray?
Well before the invention of the lightning rod, the phenomenon of electricity, including atmospheric electricity, was already a subject of growing interest among natural philosophers – both scholars and amateurs alike. Their experimental, Newtonian brand of physics yielded practical results in the Netherlands and elsewhere. An important milestone was reached in 1746 when Petrus van Musschenbroek (1692-1761) invented the “Leyden jar”. This “condenser”, or capacitor, made it possible to store electricity, more specifically the static electricity produced by an electrostatic generator. And when several jars were connected in series (which Benjamin Franklin did in 1748), they could even produce very large discharges similar to those of atmospheric electricity. It was seen that when the Leyden jars were charged they gave off sparks that closely resembled tiny bolts of lightning. Many natural philosophers of the time found it easy to imagine that those two phenomena were similar – or perhaps fundamentally identical. In 1749 the Bordeaux Academy of Arts and Sciences made the analogy the subject of its annual competition.
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