Around 1730, Professor Bose, a German professor, built a machine that could generate unprecedented static electricity by turning its enormous wheel. The demonstration attracted an English correspondent named Henry Baker, who wrote: "Sparks shone in their mouths, and they looked so frightened and pained."
Leaving aside the question of how static sparks could shine inside someone's mouth, anyone who had worn a wool sweater knew that taking it off could cause static electricity. The important thing was that this news was soon seen by Benjamin Franklin, who was in London at the time. From then on, he began exploring electricity.
In 1746, Musschenbroek, a professor at Leiden University in the Netherlands, accidentally invented a glass bottle lined inside and out with metal foil during an experiment. A spherical electrode was attached above its mouth, linked at the bottom to the metal foil inside. This bottle was called a Leyden Jar.
It could be understood as a battery capable of storing a great deal of electrical energy. One day, Musschenbroek's lawyer friend came to visit him and accidentally touched the bottle, nearly dying of electrocution. Musschenbroek reached out to pull him away, and the two of them were electrocuted together.
After the fright, the lawyer refused to touch the bottle again, but Musschenbroek carried it around the world. Naturally, whoever touched it got electrocuted, and someone even got a nosebleed from it. This little bottle overturned all accepted theories: electricity could be transmitted and did not vanish in an instant. At the same time, people discovered that if one person held the bottle and another held a conductor, both would jump from the shock.
Thus, a serious scientific experiment became entertainment. Jean-Antoine Nollet, an academician of France, invited Louis XV to watch a performance. He had seven hundred guards line up