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Corbett's electrostatic machine is a static electricity generating device that was made by the Shaker physician Thomas Corbett in 1810. Intended to treat
Corbett was a medical physician for the Shakers, a religious group of
rheumatism
Rheumatism or rheumatic disorders are conditions causing chronic, often intermittent pain affecting the joints or connective tissue. Rheumatism does not designate any specific disorder, but covers at least 200 different conditions, including a ...
, the device built up a static charge and stored it in a Leyden jar
A Leyden jar (or Leiden jar, or archaically, Kleistian jar) is an electrical component that stores a high-voltage electric charge (from an external source) between electrical conductors on the inside and outside of a glass jar. It typically co ...
, an early type of capacitor
In electrical engineering, a capacitor is a device that stores electrical energy by accumulating electric charges on two closely spaced surfaces that are insulated from each other. The capacitor was originally known as the condenser, a term st ...
.
Description
Corbett was a medical physician for the Shakers, a religious group of colonial America
The colonial history of the United States covers the period of European colonization of North America from the late 15th century until the unifying of the Thirteen British Colonies and creation of the United States in 1776, during the Re ...
. He was a botanist
Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...
and preferred herbal medicines
Herbal medicine (also called herbalism, phytomedicine or phytotherapy) is the study of pharmacognosy and the use of medicinal plants, which are a basis of traditional medicine. Scientific evidence for the effectiveness of many herbal treatments ...
to bloodletting. His machine was hand-operated. Rotating a glass cylinder in contact with a silk pad caused a static charge to accumulate on the cylinder. A metal comb collected this charge, which was then stored in a Leyden jar. From the jar, the electrical charge could then be released into the patient, producing a shock akin to "touching a doorknob after walking across carpet in dry weather".
See also
*Franklin's electrostatic machine
Franklin's electrostatic machine is a high-voltage static electricity-Electrostatic generator, generating device used by Benjamin Franklin in the mid-18th century for research into electrical phenomena. Its key components are a glass globe which ...
References
Electrostatic generators Historical scientific instruments Shaker inventions 19th-century inventions {{sci-hist-stub