SS Conection

The Origin of Electricity:

The result of an imbalance between negative and positive charges is called static electricity. The past three centuries many scientist have been studying static electricity. With the past of the years they have been improving for the best of our society. Everything start in 540 BC when Thales the greek and great philosopher found static electricity while cleaning his amber. But during that time he didn't really put attention to that moment. During that time they just knew that rubbing something made a pulling force. Another important scientist that also did some research in the 17th century on static electricity was Earnest, when Otto Von Guericke made the first friction generator. Coulomb also made a big contribution to static electricity in the 17th century due to the reason that create the first friction generator. In the 18th century, Coulomb made a big research related with static energy. Franklin also made an association related with static electricity with storms. With the results published by Michael Faraday in 1832 about the identity of electricity, this prove that electricity made by magnet, volcanic electricity produced by a battery and static electricity are all the same. In 1883 the Wimshurst Machine was created in Britian by James Wimshurst.

The Englishman, James Wimshurst (1832-1903), spent most of his professional career working with the shipping industry as a surveyor and evaluator of ships, serving as the consulting engineer for the British Board of Trade.. At the same time he had a parallel career in science. We know him for his work with electrostatic generators in the early 1880s, when he improved Voss' electrostatic generator.

It is important to mention that the Wimhurst Mahcine separate electric charges by electrostatic induction, or influence. Earlier machines in this class were developed by Wilhelm Holtz (1865 and 1867), August Toepler (1865), and J. Robert Voss (1880). They were more efficient than the earlier machines that worked by friction. The earlier machines exhibited a tendency to suddenly and without warning switch their polarity. The Wimshurst machine did not suffer from this defect. The machine is self-starting, meaning that it requires no electrical power supply to create the initial charge. It does, however, require mechanical power to turn the discs. The output of the machine is a constant current. The spark energy can be increased by adding a Leyden jar, which is an early type of capacitor suitable for high voltages.

It is always good to know more about the inventor. James Wimshurst was born in Poplar, England, and was the son of Henry Wimshurst, a shipbuilder of Ratcliffe Cross Dock.[1][2] Wimshurst was educated at Steabonheath House in London and became an apprentice at the Thames Ironworks until 1853 with James Mare. In 1865, he married Clara Tribble.[3] In 1865, after Wimshurst was transferred to Liverpool, he worked at the Liverpool Underwriters' Registry. In 1874, he joined the Board of Trade as a "chief shipwright surveyor" at Lloyds. Later, in 1890, he became the Board of Trade's representative at an international conference in Washington. However, Wimshurst did not patent his machines and the various improvements that he made to them, his refinements to the electrostatic generator led to its becoming widely known as the Wimshurst machine.

Isaac Newton Benjamin Franklin Thales James Wimshurst