Leyden Jar from RMS Carpathia
Leyden Jar from RMS Carpathia
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- Description
- Leyden jars were essential for storing electrical charges used by the earliest wireless radios used aboard ocean liners. Shortly after RMS Carpathia's rescue of Titanic survivors, the ship visited Boston, Massachusetts. Marconi Wireless Radio employee Harry Cheetham boarded Carpathia to service the radio, which had been damaged during the Titanic operations. He replaced these two Leyden jars. One is intact and the other is broken, but fortunately the broken one shows how the jars were constructed inside to store and relay an electrical charge. Cheetham kept these artifacts as Titanic souvenirs, and donated them to the Smithsonian in 1930.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- Leyden jar
- condenser
- capacitor
- Other Terms
- Leyden jar; Electrostatic Devices
- date made
- ca 1910
- maker
- Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. Ltd.
- Physical Description
- glass (overall material)
- wood (overall material)
- foil (overall material)
- copper (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 11 1/4 in x 3 7/8 in; 28.575 cm x 9.8425 cm
- ID Number
- EM.310242.01
- catalog number
- 310242.01
- accession number
- 113406
- Credit Line
- from Harry R. Chetham
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: Electricity
- Communications
- Transportation
- Titanic
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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