Chapter III: Van Marum
Empiricism and Empire
I Van Marum’s Work at Teylers Museum
1. You Win Some, you Lose Some
After having spent more than one and a half years helping John Cuthbertson construct the
largest electrostatic generator ever to be built and helping him negotiate all the unexpected
challenges this brought about - the huge, 65 inch glass discs that are rotated to generate
friction were in themselves an extraordinary feat of glass casting - finally seeing the machine
installed at Teylers Museum and being able to crank it up for the first time must have made
van Marum feel like a child unwrapping an eagerly anticipated birthday present.1 After much
delay this stage was finally reached in December of 1784, just one month after van Marum
had been appointed director of Teylers Museum. Conscious of whom he had to thank for this
amazing machine, van Marum wasted no time in demonstrating it to the trustees of the Teyler
Foundation.2
But as enamoured as van Marum was with this powerful device now at his disposal, his fellow
employee of the Teyler Foundation, Vincent van der Vinne, was not. As was already
mentioned in the previous chapter, it did not take him long to complain about van Marum’s
constant experimenting to the trustees. They, however, took van Marum’s side in this dispute
and explicitly stated that “because of the extensive aims that the Trustees have in mind for the
public good, there will necessarily be some nuisance for the Occupant [of the Foundation
House]”. Because van Marum wanted to perform experiments with the electrostatic generator,
he would have to “be present repeatedly in the Musaeum for that purpose both in the evening
and in the daytime”.
1 Van Marum kept notes o f the process o f its construction: Martinus van Marum: “Joumaal van mijne
Verrichtingen ter verkrijging eener Verzameling van Physische Instrumenten & Modellen van nuttige
Werktuigen in Teylers Museum”, 1783-1790, Haarlem, NHA, Archief van Marum, vol. 529, nr. 1 Id, fol. 1-23.
On the machine and its construction see also: Willem D. Hackmann, John and Jonathan Cuthbertson: The
Invention and Development o f the Eighteenth Century Plate Electrical Machine (Leyden: Rijksmuseum voor de
Geschiedenis der Natuurwetenschappen, 1973), 29-31.
2 “Notulen Tweede Genootschap”, 04.02.1785, Haarlem, ATS, vol. 1382.
“uit hoofde der uitgebreider oogmerken welke Directeuren zig ten nutte van het algemeen voorstellen,
noodwendig eenige meerdere last voor den Bewooner [van het Fundatiehuis] volge”; “ten dien einde
meermaalen zo bij avond als bij dag zig in het Musaeum [...] bevinden”; “Directienotulen”, 24.12.1784,
Haarlem, ATS, vol. 5.
Van der Vinne was granted some respite when damp weather prevented van Marum from
continuing with his experiments throughout the winter, but the apparent serenity did not last
long. As soon as “an unexpected Frost” befell Haarlem in early February, van Marum took
this opportunity to demonstrate the electrostatic generator to his fellow members of Teylers
Second Society.4 They were suitably impressed, recording that the “experiments [...] have
completely answered or even surpassed the expectations that had been formed of this
exceptionally large and excellent piece of artisanship”.5
Van der Vinne, on the other hand, will hardly have appreciated that this demonstration was
given in the evening. Just three months later, in fact, he informed the trustees that he was
resigning from his post as caretaker of the Foundation’s art collection and his wife and he
were moving out of the Foundation House, citing “the inconveniences of living in this House
and in particular those that they have suffered recently from Mr van Marum”6 After the
trustees’ attempts at persuading van der Vinne to stay on failed, they accepted his resignation
and by the end of June had chosen Wybrand Hendriks as his successor. Hendriks was to stay
on until 1819.
2. The Bigger the Better
On the very same day that van der Vinne handed in his resignation, van Marum informed the
Second Society that he wanted to publish the results of the series of experiments he had been
performing with the electrostatic generator in the Society’s Proceedings (Verhandelingen
uitgegeven door Teyler’s Tweede Genootschap) — the fact that he had enough material to fill
an entire booklet in itself already seems to underscore that he had indeed spent every possible
moment working with the new machine, and that van der Vinne’s complaints were perhaps
not entirely unfounded. Never one to do things by halves, van Marum had even prepared a
preliminary version of an introduction to the treatise on his experiments already, and informed
his fellow members that the trustee van Zeebergh himself had suggested publishing the results
of his experiments as a third volume of the Society’s Proceedings (the first two volumes had
contained treatises by the winners of the Society’s prize essay competitions) - clearly, the
trustees’ backing had already been secured.
4 “Notulen Tweede Genootschap”, 18.02.1785, Haarlem, ATS, vol. 1382.
5 “een onverwachte Vorst”; “proef-neemingen [...] allezins hebben beandwoord aan, o f zelfs overtroffen de
verwachtingen, die men van dit ongemeen groot en voortreflijk konst-stuk had opgevat”; Ibid.
6 “de lastigheeden der bewoninge van deezen Huize en bizonder die welke zij zints eenigen tijd door de Hr. van
Marum lijden” ; “Directienotulen”, 06.05.1785, Haarlem, ATS, vol. 5.
7 “Notulen Tweede Genootschap”, 06.05.1785, Haarlem, ATS, vol. 1382.