Travelling electrical set

This travelling electrical set was made around 1790. Kits such as this one remained popular throughout the nineteenth century for domestic or public instruction and entertainment. This example, which contains a large cylindrical electrostatic machine, comes with a substantial number of accessories which are listed on the trade card inside the lid. These include a 'thunder house' - essentially a demonstration lightening conductor - a 'magic picture' - which lights up when charged, - and a 'sett of bells' - which ring when a charge is applied.

This photograph shows most of the travelling electrical set outside its box. The printed trade card in the lid is for W. & S. Jones, of Holborn, London, well known instrument suppliers between 1781 and 1850. It shows their trade sign of 'Archimedes', while the list of 'Electrical Articles' is written in manuscript. The main part of the kit is the cylindrical glass machine, which generates frictional electricity when the handle is turned and the glass rotates against two leather pads.

The brothers William Jones (1762-1831) and Samuel Jones (1770-1859) were in business together with their father, John Jones (c. 1739-91), an optical and mathematical instrument maker whom they succeeded. They managed to fill the gap in the market left by such entrepreneurs as Benjamin Martin and George Adams, by advertising in new editions of both of their books a vast variety of instrumentation, apparently in demand from an insatiable public.

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