At Boston’s Museum of Science, one of the stars of the show in the Theatre of Electricity show is the Van de Graaff generator, which produces immense electrical charges that can split atoms (original purpose) or make visitors’ hair stand on end and create huge sparks (the generator’s retirement job)
Smaller ones are available to use for fun or school science demos, and larger ones are still in use in research, although mostly replaced by cyclotrons. But these are the originals, built in 1929 by MIT physicist Robert Van de Graaff. In 1950, when the new museum was being built, MIT donated them.
They stand on their original columns at the lowest level of the museum, and extend up to the third level; naturally I ended up with a lot of shots at different viewpoints.
