Someone - I think it was Bill - wondered why Faraday never invented the
van de Graff machine. It is interesting that Maxwell in "Experiment 7" of
Ch 1 of his E&M treatise discusses how a hollow conductor may be charged
to "any number of units of electricity" if the charge is added to the
inner surface.
However he sees this as an "accurate test of the truth of the theory" and
does not make any practical application. (The invention of "atom
smashers" was not a need of the day.)