What material was Faraday's original ice pail made of?

Faraday's original ice pail was made of pewter.

In his description of the experiment, Faraday identified the insulated container as a pewter ice pail. Pewter is a soft, workable metal alloy traditionally based mainly on tin, often with small amounts of other metals. Its conductivity allowed charges to redistribute over the pail's surfaces when a charged object was placed inside.

The pail was not merely a convenient household vessel: its conducting walls were essential to the experiment. The induced charge appeared on the inner surface opposite the enclosed charge, while the detector connected to the outside registered the corresponding electrical effect. This arrangement helped Faraday study induction quantitatively.

The name “ice pail” refers to the container's original use, not to ice being necessary for the experiment. Modern demonstrations commonly use metal cans, cylinders, or screened enclosures instead. Iron, brass, and copper can also serve as conductors, but they were not the material of Faraday's original pail.