M.A. Santos,
Your correct that electrical induction will not generate static
electricity, but it allows the efficient collection of the charges generated.
They get their name form the change in technology. This is just like twenty
years ago, when you could first buy "solid state televisions." The still
contained a vacuum tube (the CRT as most do today), but the rest of the
technology had gone solid state. The older static machines were just that:
say a silk pad that rubbed against a moving glass disk, and some brushes or
point to collect the charge on a metal cylinder. The "improved induction
machines, like the Wimshurst machine, use induction to more efficiently
collect the charge. This is what is happening on the opposing disks.
According to Poynting and Thomson, the first of these was by Belli in 1831,
Wimshurst introduced his in 1883.
This is getting a long way from Rutherford's original experiment and
rather cleaver experiment.
Gary
Gary Karshner
St. Mary's University
San Antonio, Texas
KARSHNER@STMARYTX.EDU