James Wimshurst was an English inventor/ Engineer born April 13, 1882-1903. James Wimshurst was the son of Henry Wimshurst, a shipbuilder of the Radcliffe cross dock. Wimshurst was educated at Steabonheath house in London and became appreciated at the Thames ironwork until 1853 with James Mare. In 1865, he married Clara Tribble. In 1865, after the Wimshurst machine was transferred to Liverpool, he worked at Liverpool underwriters Registry. In 1874, he joined the board of trade as a “Chief shipwright surveyor" at Lloyd. In, 1890 he became board of trade representative at an international conference in Washington. Wimshurst dedicated large amounts of free time to do experimental work. Besides his electrical activities, he invented a distinctive vacuum, a device to indicate ship stability and methods for electrically connecting lighthouses to the mainland. In 1878, he began to experiment with electrical influence machine for generating electrical sparks for scientific and entertainment purposes. Beginning in 1880, he became interested in electrostatic machines of theinfluence type. His house in Clapham, England, had a versatile workshop which had a wide variety of tools and devices for electric illumination. Wimshurst constructed several of the known types of electrostatic generators, such as those created by, William Nicholson and Holtz. To these predecessors, Wimshurst made many modifications with the result known as the Wimshurst machine
Shortly afterwards, Wimshurst developed a "duplex machine". The device had two disks turning in opposite directions, with metallic conducting sectors on the surfaces of each. Compared to its predecessors, this machine was less sensitive to atmospheric conditions and did not require an electric power supply. This form of the machine was also improved by other developers such as the Pidgeon developed by W.R Pigdgen, which increased the electrical induction effect and its electrical output. In 1882, Wimshurst developed his "Cylindrical Machine". By 1883, his improvements to the electrostatic generator led to the device being widely known as the Wimshurst machine. He died in Clapham, England, at the age of 70.