1910–1911
Britannica 11th
Encyclopaedia Britannica · 11th edition
ELECTROPHORUS. an instrument invented by Alessandro Volta in 1775, by which mechanical work is transformed into electrostatic charge by the aid of a small initial charge of electricity. The operation depends on the facts of electrostatic induction discovered by John Canton in 1753, and, independently, by J. K. Wilcke in 1762 (see ELECTRICITY). Volta, in a letter to J. Priestley on the loth of June 1775 (see Collaione dell' opcre, ed. 1816, vol. i. p. 118), described the invention of a device be called an elettrofor…
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- Vol. 9, pp. 237-237