The Leyden Jar

The Leyden Jar was created by Pieter van Musschenbroek. Mussenbroek was a physcisit that created this "condenser" as the Leyden Jar is commonly called. this is because many people at the time thought that electricity behaved as matter and it could be condensed. The leyden jar was the first item that could store large amounts of charge. The leyden jar was also the first capacitator. It is also used to help build and store electric energy. The amount of charge that the leyden jar can store is related to the voltage applied to it x the capacitance of the leyden jar. The capacitance of the leyden jar depends on the area of the foil or metal and the type of material and the thickness of that material between the two layers of foil that make up the jar. The leyden jar was able to be charged by bringing the exposed end of an attached conducting wire into contact with a device that would generate static electricity. As the first object to store large amounts of charge, the Leyden jar paved the way towards advancing the study of electrostatics.

Sources:
http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/instruments/archaic/leyden_jars.htm
http://www.alaska.net/~natnkell/leyden.htm