PIETER VAN MUSSCHENBROEK: BIOGRAPHY, EXPERIMENTS, CONTRIBUTIONS - ARTE - 2025

Pieter van Musschenbroek (1692-1761) was a prominent Dutch-born scientist who was credited with creating, in 1746, the first condenser, which was named the Leiden bottle.

His contributions to science were numerous. He was also a pioneer in the study of elastic instability, he contributed by describing in a very detailed way what machines that did tests of tension, compression and bending were like.

Portrait of von Musschenbroek. Source:, via Wikimedia Commons.

Biography

Throughout his life Pieter van Musschenbroek was closely linked to his hometown. He was born in 1692 in Leiden, Holland, where he died almost 70 years later.

He was part of a family that excelled in the manufacture of bronze instruments, usually to be used in scientific experiments. Among the products they made were air pumps, microscopes and telescopes.

The family's work was closely linked to that of the physicists who lived at the University of Leiden, considered at the time as one of the most important institutions in the field of experiments and science teaching. It also allowed them to occupy a very good position in the society of the time.

Personal life

He married twice, first in 1724 with Adriana van de Water, with whom he had two children: Maria and Jan Willem van Musschenbroek. In 1732 his wife died and four years later Pieter remarried, this time to Helena Alstorphius.

Pieter was not yet fifteen when his father died, and he also taught his brother his future education.

Education

Van Musschenbroek attended school to learn Latin in 1708. During those early years of study he also learned Greek, French, English, German, Italian, and Spanish.

He studied in his hometown, at the University of Leiden. There he received his doctorate in medicine in 1715. Later, in 1719, he received a new doctorate, this time in philosophy in London. It was in England that he met Isaac Newton and witnessed some lectures by John Theophilus Desaguliers.

As a teacher

By 1719 he managed to become a professor of mathematics and philosophy in Duisburg (Germany). A few years later he did the same in Utrecht (Holland). In both cities he was characterized by offering lectures that addressed topics that had to do with experimental physics. He often used gadgets made by one of his brothers to test his ideas.

One of his most important contributions as a teacher was that he introduced Newton's ideas in Holland. Furthermore, he was the first to use the word physics, something that had not yet happened in 1729. He even taught astronomy to his students.

At the end of the year 1739 he accepted a position at the University of Leiden, which he held until the last days of his life. It was during this stage that van Musschenbroek began to show greater interest in the field of electrostatics.

Experiments

One of his first inventions occurred in 1731 when he created the pyrometer. It was an object that was used to calculate the temperature of a substance without having to touch it.

In 1745 he began to carry out his first experiments with static electricity. He did so with the help of Andreas Cunaeus, a Dutch scientist who served as van Musschenbroek's assistant. Together with Cunaeus he discovered that it was possible to accumulate electricity in a container.

From these experiments the famous Leiden bottle was born. Important for having been the first type of condenser that existed.

Leiden bottle

During the early eighteenth century there was no evidence to show that electricity could be stored. Nor was it proven that it was possible to generate electricity through means other than friction.

Van Musschenbroek repeatedly tried to produce sparks through friction, just as scientists such as Gilbert, von Guericke, Hauksbee, and Dufay had previously experimented. To do this, he used a glass bottle that was connected to a friction machine that worked electrically.

The experiment consisted of filling the bottle with water, since van Musschenbroek knew that water was a good conductor of electricity, even though the glass in the container was not conductive.

Nothing happened the first time van Musschenbroek held the glass bottle in one of his hands and a piece of wire in the other, while the friction machine was working.

After this, Cunaeus placed one end of the cable in the water. At that moment van Musschenbroek felt a current that he defined as a violent blow. In this way, the bottle had managed to accumulate electricity.

The Leiden bottle got its name from the hometown and the university where van Musschenbroek studied and worked, which was also the site of the experiments.

In dispute

The creation of the pyrometer and the Leiden bottle was similarly awarded to other scientists. In the case of the first instrument, Josiah Wedgwood also created an apparatus that had characteristics very similar to that of van Musschenbroek.

Perhaps the most intense debate is over the Leiden bottle, since the credit is distributed. Some historians claimed that Ewald Jurgen von Kleist was the first to invent the Leiden bottle.

The confusion was born because von Kleist first published his conclusions on the subject. He did so in 1745, but van Musschenbroek really was the first to develop a model that was functional for accumulating electricity.

Von Kleist's experiments claimed that a bottle, containing alcohol or mercury, and having a nail inside it could store electricity. By submitting their considerations, no one was able to repeat their experiment successfully. So his notes went under the table.

Contributions

The Leiden bottle has been considered one of the most relevant inventions in history. For a long time their use was very important since they acted as capacitors.

Scholars affirm that it laid the foundations to develop other systems, such as radiotelegraphy. This way of communicating used radio waves to propagate messages.

The amount of work he published was significant, which showed how involved he was with studying the area. Van Musschenbroek's works were always written in Latin, but after his death they were translated into languages ​​such as Dutch, English, French and German.

References

1. Arca, A. (2006). History of Telecommunications. Biography of Petrus (Pieter) van Musschenbroek. Recovered from histel.com
2. Beek, L. (1985). Dutch pioneers of science. Assen, Netherlands: Van Gorcum.
3. Geoffroy, E. (2018). The representation of the invisible. Alicante: Publications Universitat Alacant.
4. Keithley, J. (1999). The story of electrical and magnetic measurements. New York: IEEE Press.
5. Ordóñez, J., & Elena, A. (1990). Science and its public. Madrid: Higher Council for Scientific Research.