Accession No

5194

Brief Description

model for demonstrating the power of electricity, made up of four electrostatic cannons mounted on a wood castle and powered by five leyden jars, attributed to Watkins and Hill, English, 19th Century

Origin

England; London [based on attributed maker]

Maker

Watkins and Hill [attributed]

Class

electrical; demonstration

Earliest Date

1800

Latest Date

1900

Inscription Date

Material

metal (brass, copper, white metal); wood (cork, 3 other types); ivory; glass; paint

Dimensions

length 650 mm; height 565 mm; depth 160mm

Special Collection

Provenance

Purchased from Scientific and Antique Ltd., Lipka’s Archade, Portobello Road, London [shop], in 16/12/1997. Purchased by Scientific and Antique in Eire.

Inscription

Description Notes

Long thin wood case painted on the outside to resemble stonework with door and windows. Brass carrying handle at either end and brass ring beneath door. The top front of the box is castellated. Inside the box stand 5 tall leyden jars of different sizes, separated at the top by wooden plinths. The inside of the box and both inside and outside of the leyden jars are coated with a white metal, now corroded and flaking off. The leyden jars have wooden lids each with a brass rod and chain reaching to the bottom of the jar on the inside and a brass rod and ball mounted above. The centre jar has a second ball above the first and two short terminals to which thin copper wire is attached. The other jars are joined in pairs by bent brass rods. On the plinths between the jars stand 4 brass cannons on wood bases with ivory plugs in their tops. The cannons and plinths are numbered by hand to indicate which should go where. The first and third cannons have mountings of a very slightly different design from the second and fourth, the brass is less corroded, their plugs are rougher (?ivory) and they may be mounted on a different type of wood. The brass is badly corroded (?lacquered), the castellations at either end are badly cracked and the metal coating totally perished.

Condition fair/poor; incomplete (?)

References

Events