This is a Wimshurst Machine that is used as an electrostatic generator. You can see one proudly displayed as a piece of modern scientific apparatus in the 1890 science classroom in Williams Hall shown below.
Today we use this Wimshurst Machine for demonstrations in our physics classes to generate sparks and electric discharges (and hopefully student interest). When this device was invented in the 1880s, it was used extensively to collect static charge and create electric fields to be used in scientific and medical experiments. To see how a Wimshurst Machine works, check out this cool video from the MIT Department of Physics Technical Services Group.
Science experiments can be challenging. We take our power systems and electromagnetic waves for granted in the modern era, but in the early 1900s, it took entire rooms of equipment to generate oscillating electric and magnetic fields! Here is a picture from the early 1920s of Carleton’s Professor Hake in the Dynamo Lab of Laird Hall of Science.
