This circuit was first invented by Heinrich Greinacher in 1913 (published 1914) to provide the 200–300 V he needed for his newly invented ionometer, the 110 V AC supplied by the Zurich power stations of the time being insufficient. He later extended this idea into a cascade of multipliers in 1920. This cascade of Greinacher cells is often inaccurately referred to as a Villard cascade. It is also called a Cockcroft–Walton multiplier after the particle accelerator machine built by John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton, who independently discovered the circuit in 1932.