James Wimshurst

James Wimshurst

James Wimshurst (born April 13, 1832 in Poplar , † January 3, 1903 in Clapham , London) was an English inventor.

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Wimshurst was the son of Henry Wimshurst. He grew up at Steabonheath House in London and was an apprentice at Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding and Engineering Co. Ltd. until 1853. In 1865 he married Clara Tribble. After moving to Liverpool in 1865, he worked there on the Liverpool Underwriters' Registry.

In 1874 he joined the Board of Trade , part of the Chamber of Commerce, as a ship surveyor at Lloyds . In 1890 he became the representative of the Board of Trade at an international conference in Washington.

Wimshurst spent most of his free time experimenting. In addition to his electrical work, Wimshurst later also improved a measuring device with a vacuum pump to show the ship's stability and developed methods of electrically connecting lighthouses to the mainland.

In 1878 he began to influence machines to experiment to produce electric spark jumps for entertaining and scientific purposes. From 1880 Wimshurst showed interest in electrostatic induction machines. His house in Clapham was equipped with a versatile workshop that made a wide range of tools and equipment for electrical experiments possible.

Wimshurst designed different types of electrostatic generators, as they had been developed before him by William Nicholson , Ferdinand P. Carré and Wilhelm Holtz . Wimshurst's further development is now called the "Holtz-Wimshurst machine".

Shortly afterwards he developed his "duplex machine". The device has two discs rotating in opposite directions with metallic sectors on their surface. Compared to its predecessor models, this machine was less susceptible to atmospheric environmental conditions and did not need an electrical power supply. This apparatus was itself improved by other developers, for example the "Pidgeon machine", which, developed by WR Pidgeon, delivered higher output voltages due to a higher induction effect.

In 1882 Wimshurst developed his "Cylindrical Machine" and improved his apparatus by 1883, which later became known in its perfect form as the "Wimshurst Influence Machine" or " Wimshurst Machine ".

In 1885 one of the largest "Wimshurst machines" was built in England and is now in the Science and Industry Museum in Chicago.

In 1889 Wimshurst became a member of the "Institution of Electrical Engineers". In 1891 he described a machine that generates high-voltage alternating current. In 1896 his multi-disk influenza machine was used to supply an X-ray generator for X-rays and for electro-shock therapies. For his services to medicine, Wimshurst was elected a member of the Royal Society in 1898 .

James Wimshurst died in Clapham on January 3, 1903, at the age of 70.