Musschenbroek, Pieter Van

Born Mar. 14, 1692, in Leiden; died there Sept. 19, 1761. Dutch physicist.

Musschenbroek studied philosophy, mathematics, and medicine at the University of Leiden. He was a professor first at the university in Duisburg from 1719 to 1723 and then at the University of Utrecht. Musschenbroek made a significant contribution to the development of methods of experimental physics. In 1745 his experiments with electricity led him—independently of the German physicist E. G. von Kleist—to the invention of the Leyden jar. Musschenbroek’s course in physics and several of his other books were translated into other languages. He was a member of the London Royal Society, a corresponding member of the Paris Academy of Sciences, and an honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1754).