In 1745, the Leyden jar, the first device capable of storing static electricity, was independently invented by Ewald Georg von Kleist in Kammin, Pomerania (now Kamien Pomorski, Poland) and by Pieter van Musschenbroek at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. The device consisted of a glass jar partially filled with water and fitted with a metal conductor passing through its stopper. It could accumulate and then discharge a powerful electric shock, making electrical experimentation dramatically more visible and visceral.

The Leyden jar made electricity a public spectacle in European salons and lecture halls, creating a shared cultural experience that entered literary consciousness. The sudden, shocking discharge of stored electrical energy became a metaphor for the sudden release of pent-up emotion in poetry and drama. The device's ability to bottle an invisible force fascinated writers and contributed to the Gothic literary tradition's interest in contained, hidden powers that could suddenly break free, themes central to Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein."