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John Cuthbertson1743 - 1821

Instrument maker born in Dearham, Cumberland (Northern England) in 1743. Apprenticed with the instrument maker James Chamneys and lived with him in Amsterdam starting in 1748. He also married Chamney's daughter.

Cuthbertson is best known for his glass-plate frictional electric machines, which he perfected while in the Netherlands, where he collaborated with his brother Jonathan, then in Rotterdam. In 1783 he built the lasgest frictional machine of its type in existence for Martinus van Marum. The machine was able to produce a 24 inch electric arc.

John returned to London in the 1790s, leaving his brother behind in the Nethrlands. In London, he continued to make electric machines, as well as air pumps, and inventing a new form of electrometer.

He also wrote several books on the subject of electricity.

Excerpted from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

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The first image in this series represents a giant, double-plate electrostatic generator, which …
collection of 51 watercolors of scientific instruments
John Cuthbertson
Date: 1770-1815
Accessories: brown storage box, descriptive tag, thin strip of paper in box with the inscription "lucernal microscope" in David P. Wheatland's handwriting (which refers to figs. 47-48 and 51 in this series), page from the book "Old Science and Medicine" with a photographic copy of the first print from this series, entitled "The Large Electric Machine at Haarlem."
Object number: 1998-1-1087