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Static electricity is an imbalance of electric charges within or on the surface of a material. The charge remains until it can move away by an electric current or electrical discharge . The word "static" is used to differentiate it from current electricity , where an electric charge flows through an electrical conductor .
Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky, an artistic rendition of Franklin's kite experiment painted by Benjamin West, c. 1816 The BEP engraved the vignette Franklin and Electricity (c. 1860) which was used on the $10 National Bank Note from the 1860s to 1890s.
Other early studies noting the interaction of static electricity with water and reported in the English language include: Francis Hauksbee "Physico-Mechanical Experiments on Various Subjects". (1719) William Watson, "Experiments and Observations Tending To Illustrate The Nature and Properties of Electricity". (MDCCXLVI) (1741)
The Leyden jar was used to conduct many early experiments in electricity, and its discovery was of fundamental importance in the study of electrostatics. It was the first means of accumulating and preserving electric charge in large quantities that could be discharged at the experimenter's will, thus overcoming a significant limit to early ...
Franklin's electrostatic machine on display at the Franklin Institute. Franklin's electrostatic machine is a high-voltage static electricity-generating device used by Benjamin Franklin in the mid-18th century for research into electrical phenomena.
Armstrong Hydroelectric Machine. The Armstrong effect is the physical process by which static electricity is produced by the friction of a fluid. It was first discovered in 1840 when an electrical spark resulted from water droplets being swept out by escaping steam from a boiler.
A Van de Graaff generator, for classroom demonstrations 12" Quadruple Sector-less Wimshurst Machine (Bonetti Machine). An electrostatic generator, or electrostatic machine, is an electrical generator that produces static electricity, or electricity at high voltage and low continuous current.
The initial motivation for the development of the Van de Graaff generator was as a source of high voltage to accelerate particles for nuclear physics experiments. [1] The high potential difference between the surface of the terminal and ground results in a corresponding electric field .