Keywords: Leyden jar being discharged.png Leyden jar being safely discharged with a discharger from an 1875 medical book The discharger is a U shaped piece of wire with metal balls on each end The Leyden jar contains a powerful charge of static electricity stored on the inner and outer metal foil coatings If a person touched the central electrode while holding the outer foil coating he could receive a dangerous shock The discharger was touched to the outer foil coating and the other arm was brought near the central electrode and a spark would jump between the two metal balls allowing charge to flow from one foil coating to the other 1875 Downloaded 2012-04-24 from http //books google com/books id OfE0AQAAMAAJ pg PA22 George Miller Beard Alphonso David Rockwell 1875 A Practical Treatise on the Medical Surgical Uses of Electricity 2nd Ed William Wood Co New York p 22 fig 10 on Google Books author PD-Art Uploaded with UploadWizard Leyden jars |