Accession No

0007

Brief Description

electrostatic machine, ‘Nairne’s Patent Medico-Electrical Machine’, by Edward Nairne, English, 1785 (c)

Origin

England; London

Maker

Nairne, Edward

Class

electrical; demonstration

Earliest Date

1785

Latest Date

1785

Inscription Date

Material

glass; metal (brass, other); wood; hide (leather); cloth (silk); cork

Dimensions

box length 600mm; breadth 340mm; height 515mm discharging rod length 490mm; box length 650mm; breadth 520mm; height 525mm

Special Collection

Provenance

Note in ‘Some of the Old Apparatus in the Cavendish Laboratory, 1935’: ‘Nairne Cylindrical Machine. Presented to the Cavendish Laboratory by the Duke of Devonshire about 1928.’ N.B the above note is entitled ‘Apparatus formerly belonging to Henry Cavendish. (1781-1810)’ (S.K 28/05/2015)

Inscription

‘NAIRNE’S
PATENT
MEDICO-ELECTRICAL
MACHINE’ (stamped on top of base)

Description Notes

Electrostatic machine, ‘Nairne’s Patent Medico-Electrical Machine’, by Edward Nairne, English, c. 1785.

Central glass closed cylinder mounted in horizontal wooden bearings on two glass posts, themselves mounted on a black wooden base; glass and wooden turning handle fastened to one end of the glass cylinder; two smaller-diameter capped sheet-metal cylinders, painted black on the outside; each mounted on a single glass post to a smaller wooden base; these bases can be clamped to the central one so that the metal cylinders are on either side of the central glass one, with the three axes parallel and level; a leather pad and square of woven silk are attached to one metal cylinder, and an eleven tooth comb to the other; when in use, the silk passes between the leather pad and the glass cylinder; inside each capped metal cylinder resides a Leyden jar with open glass tube and brass conductor extending through its cork top; each metal cylinder has a brass terminal fixed to its side and a hole in its top; this hole to accept a hinged metal-and-glass arm with a brass and a wooden sphere at its end. With brass, adjustable discharging rod with glass handle; two arms with spherical ends.

Complete (except some accessories shown in Nairne, 1796 missing).

References

Events