Post #2707222
2026-04-19 16:05 UTC
@IrrationalMethod@social.coop @msbellows@c.im
I remember the large Van de Graaf generator at the Franklin Institute, in Philadelphia. It was still there when our crew visited about a decade ago. I recalled reading about Benjamin Franklin's experiments with electricity. Rubbing things together was apparently an early investigatory scientific procedure — Franklin's musical glass armonica grew resulted from rubbing water on wine glasses. Curiosity can get you far!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin%27s_electrostatic_machine
Replies (1)
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@IrrationalMethod@social.coop 2026-04-19 16:51
@RunRichRun@mastodon.social @msbellows@c.im Oh yes, I loved that room of the Franklin Institute. It just seems so quaint to be playing with static electricity by rubbing things together, compared to the big science particle accelerator experiments that came later. I never thought of Van De Graaf generators as a "serious" part of modern science, just a frequent toy used in classroom demonstrations. Clearly this Westinghouse Atom Smasher was the "missing link". 🤣