Image: Hawksbees Electrical Machine by Jean-Antoine Nollet

Description: Drawing of an electrostatics experiment by English scientist Francis Hauksbee (or Hawksbee)(1660-1713) using an early electrostatic generator of his design, drawn by French clergyman and scientist Jean-Antoine Nollet, from his 1767 book Leçons de Physique. The electrostatic generator (right) consisted of a hollow ball of glass rotated by the man turning the crank. The friction of a man's hands on the ball created a charge of static electricity, which was conducted by the chain to the metal bar suspended by insulating silk cords. This experiment apparently demonstrated electrostatic induction. The woman (center) standing on a pad which insulated her from the ground, holding a metal plate in her right hand near another one hanging from the bar, had an electric charge induced in her body, which was communicated to the metal serving plate she is holding in her left hand. The man at right is performing some experiment with the charge; possibly demonstrating that fine powder sprayed on the plate is repelled into the air. Alternatively, the flask he is holding may be a Leyden jar which he is charging from the plate.
Title: Hawksbees Electrical Machine by Jean-Antoine Nollet
Credit: Downloaded July 28, 2013 from Agustin-Privat Deschanel (1889) Elementary Treatise on Natural Philosophy, 10th Ed., Part 3: Electricity and Magnetism, D. Appleton and Co., New York, p. 574, fig. 350 on Google Books. Credited in source to Abbé Nollet Leçons de Physique, 1767
Author: Jean-Antoine Nollet
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No