Corbett's electrostatic machine

Corbett's electrostatic machine is a high voltage static electricity generating device that was made by Thomas Corbett. It was used by Shaker doctors for medical treatment in the early nineteenth century. The machine consisted of a rotating glass jar that produced an electrical charge by means of a crank wheel that was turned by hand. This charge was stored in a glass container that was released later to a patient for a cure. Corbett's machine is in the collection of the Mount Lebanon Shaker Village in the state of New York USA.

Corbett's electrostatic machine

Description
Close-up of metal rake + glass tumbler. Leyden jar storage battery is to the right.

The electrostatic machine was made by a Shaker pharmacist named Thomas Corbett in 1810 for medical treatment.[1] Corbett was medical physician for the Shakers, a religious group of colonial America. He was a botanist and used herbal medicines and unorthodox medical "cures" for his patients, including electricity.[2]

Corbett's electrostatic machine consists of a 0.5-inch (13 mm) wooden base platform sitting on a 2-inch (51 mm) frame, forming a box. The wooden platform is about 12 inches (300 mm) wide and about 9 inches (230 mm) deep. To one side of the wooden platform is mounted a small axle on pivots, which holds a rotating glass jar cylinder about the size of a Mason jar. This glass jar is attached to a crank wheel of about 5 inches (130 mm) with a leather belt. The crank wheel can be turned by hand. The wooden platform also contains a Leyden jar-style battery in one corner, standing some 9 inches (230 mm) high. The battery is a glass receptacle with a metal rod in the center, covered by a metal ball on top which collects and releases a high voltage electrical charge.[3]

Operation

The crank wheel is turned by an operator using the knob handle and then the glass cylinder would rotate by an attached belt. The glass jar then rubs against a layered silk cloth pad or a textile cloth pad, developing a high-voltage positive electrical charge. This static electricity charge is then taken off the glass cylinder through a small metal rake and transferred by wire to the Leyden jar storage battery for later use (see close-up illustration).[3] The high voltage stored electrostatic charge kept in the Leyden jar was then on the metal ball on top of the glass storage battery. It would produce a spark visible to the eye when the set of small metal globes attached to the battery were brought close enough to each other as a test experiment in a discharge.[4] The electrical principles of Corbett's electrostatic machine were later used by Edison.[4][5][6]

Treatment technique

The high voltage static charge on top of the Leyden jar storage battery was applied to a patient as he or she sat on a chair or stool atop a special platform. The four glass legs of the chair insulated the platform from the ground. The operator channeled the stored charge from the Leyden jar to the patient using metal attachments that were connected to the patient. The electrical charge produced a shock that was described to have been similar to "touching a doorknob after walking across carpet in dry weather".[3]

The electrical treatment from Corbett's electrostatic machine supposedly "cured" the sufferer of a variety of illnesses, or at least had some electrotherapeutic value.[7] It was especially designed to treat rheumatism.[7] More likely, however, the electrical shock temporarily diverted the sufferer's mind from his or her aches and pains.[8] Shaker Elizabeth Lovegrove recorded in a journal in 1837 that an elder sister of the Shakers was being treated by the Corbett machine. She reported that the Nun felt better after each treatment, at least temporarily.[8]

See also

References

Citations

  1. Inventions of theShakers, Popular Mechanics, 1976
  2. Swank 1999, p. 82.
  3. Sharon Duane Koomler (2015). "Thomas Corbett electrostatic machine". Seeking Perfect – the Shaker's material world. Antiques and Fine Art.
  4. Williams 1971, p. 31.
  5. Miller 1999, p. 45.
  6. Shea 1992, p. 22.
  7. Cohen 1998, p. 98.
  8. Sprigg 1990, p. 121.

Sources

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