Leyden Jar Invented

October 11, 1745

Ewald von Kleist in Pomerania, and independently Pieter van Musschenbroek at Leyden, found that electricity could be stored in a glass jar with metal foils. Musschenbroek's first discharge nearly killed him: I would not take a second shock for the crown of France. The world's first capacitor had arrived in parlor science.