Friction electrostatic generator
Máquina electrostática de fricción
- Date
- 1663 (Guericke) / 1705 (Hauksbee) · confidence high
- Place
- Magdeburg, Germany / London (Hauksbee)
- Credited to
- Otto von Guericke (sulphur globe); Francis Hauksbee (glass globe, 1705); Bose and Winkler (conductor and rubber, 1740s)
- People
- 👤 Francis Hauksbee1660–1713👤 Otto von Guericke1602–1686
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A sphere of sulphur or glass, turned and rubbed by hand to generate electric charges, attraction, repulsion and luminous sparks. The first electrical generator and the basis of 18th-century experimental electricity.
Guericke did not interpret his globe as electrical (he studied it as a cosmic 'virtue'); Hauksbee is often considered the true inventor of the electrical machine.
What it led to
- Electricity as an experimental science (Gray, Du Fay, Franklin)
- The distinction between conductors and insulators (Gray, 1729)
- Electrical entertainments in salons and courts
- Medical electrotherapy
Built on
- Static electricity from rubbed amber (Thales of Miletus)c. 600 BCE
- Treadle lathe with flywheelc. 1480
- Vacuum pump (air pump)1650
- Studies of amber and Gilbert's De Magnete (1600)