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Science Post - Leyden Jar

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Time for a (boring?) science post. I've been siting on this one for a while. 

Pieter van Musschenbroek was born in 1692 and is credited with building the first capacitor. (time for me to educate you) A capacitor is a device that stores electricity to be used later. His device was called a Leyden jar, named after the city he invented it in. Leiden in the Netherlands. Similar to a battery but it's not creating electricity through a chemical reaction it is only storing it. This Leyden jar helped in the creation of Guillermo Marconi's device that replaced the telegraph system and paved the way for AM Radio.  

This was the only video that didn't have an incredibly nerdy guy talk (one had him getting shocked which was awesome) The rod they push in 'charges' up the device to the right. The 'bouncing' metal pieces are there for your own personal benefit to show that it has electricity running through it. The tank wrapped in foil filled with water to the right is 'storing' the electricity. Hence the metal flakes are still bouncing after the rod is removed. The device is discharged when the electricity finds a shorter path to ground, in this case through the person who touched it. Kinda neat and you can build it yourself if you wanted. 

Just wrapped up a presentation in my Power Electronics class so this stuff was on my mind. I promise to find more 'everyone friendly' material soon. 

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