noun
: an apparatus for the production of heavy electrical discharges at very high voltage commonly consisting of an insulated hollow conductor (as a sphere) that accumulates in its interior the charge continuously conveyed from a source of direct current (as a high-voltage rectifier-transformer) by an endless belt of flexible nonconducting material (as silk, rayon, or paper) revolving on insulated motor-driven drums, the voltage thus generated being used especially for accelerating charged particles in nuclear bombardment