Ewald Georg von Kleist (10 June 1700 – 11 December 1748), also known as Ewald Jürgen von Kleist, was a German

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

, Lutheran cleric,

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

and the inventor of the

Leyden jar A Leyden jar (or Leiden jar, or archaically, Kleistian jar) is an electrical component that stores a high-voltage electric charge (from an external source) between electrical conductors on the inside and outside of a glass jar. It typically co ...

. A member of the

von Kleist The House of Kleist is the name of an old and distinguished Prussian noble family, originating in Pomerania, whose members obtained many important military and administrative positions within the Kingdom of Prussia and later in the German Empire. ...

family, Ewald was born in Wicewo in

Farther Pomerania Farther Pomerania, Hinder Pomerania, Rear Pomerania or Eastern Pomerania (; ), is a subregion of the historic region of Pomerania in north-western Poland, mostly within the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, while its easternmost parts are within the Po ...

. His father was district administrator (1657–1716). He studied

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, also known as theory of law or philosophy of law, is the examination in a general perspective of what law is and what it ought to be. It investigates issues such as the definition of law; legal validity; legal norms and values ...

at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

and the University of Leyden and may have started his interest in electricity at the latter university under the influence of

Willem 's Gravesande Willem Jacob 's Gravesande (26 September 1688 – 28 February 1742) was a Dutch mathematician and natural philosopher, chiefly remembered for developing experimental demonstrations of the laws of classical mechanics and the first experimental m ...

. From 1722–1745 or 1747 he was dean of the in

Kamień Pomorski Kamień Pomorski (; ; or ''Kammin'') is a spa town in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship of north-western Poland, on the Baltic coast. It is the seat of an urban-rural gmina (administrative district) in Kamień County which lies approximately 63&n ...

, in the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...

, after which he became president of the royal court of justice in Köslin. He was a member of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin. Influenced by Georg Matthias Bose, he independently invented the Kleistian jar on 11 October 1745, which could store electricity in large quantities. He communicated this discovery to a group of Berlin scientists in late 1745, and the news was transferred in a confused form to Leyden University where it was further investigated. This became more commonly known as the

after graduate student Pieter van Musschenbroek of Leyden.

References

1700 births 1748 deaths People from Tychowo 18th-century German lawyers 18th-century German inventors Deans (Christianity) 18th-century German Lutheran clergy 18th-century German physicists Ewald Georg People from the Province of Pomerania Leipzig University alumni Leiden University alumni {{Germany-physicist-stub