The name of a city in Holland, used in the names of certain electrical apparatus, invented there in 1745–6: Leyden jar (formerly phial or bottle), an electrical condenser consisting of a glass bottle coated inside and outside with tinfoil to within a certain distance of its mouth, and having a brass rod surmounted by a knob passing through the cork, and communicating with the internal armature. Also Leyden battery, a battery consisting of a number of Leyden jars.
1755. Franklin, Lett., etc. Wks. 1840, V. 348. I taught him … to charge the Leyden phial, and some other experiments. Ibid. (1762), 380. A Leyden bottle, charged and then sealed hermetically.
1812. Sir H. Davy, Chem. Philos., 133. A stratum of air is charged in the same manner as a glass bottle … is charged in the Leyden experiment.
1825. J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, I. 29. She was … like a Leyden jar always ready to be let off.
1840. Carlyle, Heroes (1858), 191. As if it were a poor dead thing, to be bottled up in Leyden jars, and sold over counters.
1855. Mayne, Expos. Lex., Leyden Battery, term for a number of Leyden jars, connected externally by being placed on tinfoil, or other good conductor.
