Henry Wimshurst
Encyclopedia
Henry Wimshurst was a 19th-century British
shipbuilder.
Wimshurst was in business at Ratcliffe Cross Dock in east London. He is remembered primarily as the builder of , the world's first propeller-driven steamship.
While Wimshurst cannot take credit for Archimedes revolutionary propulsion system—which was the invention of Francis Pettit Smith
—he was an "ardent supporter" of Smith and his technological breakthrough. He would later claim to have proposed an improved, two-bladed version of Smith's original propeller which was subsequently installed on the vessel.
After completing Archimedes in 1839, Wimshurst built a second screw-propelled steamship in 1840, Novelty, described as the world's first screw-propelled cargo ship and the first screw-propelled ship to make a commercial voyage.
Wimshurst himself had an inventive turn of mind, and filed a number of patents during the course of his career. In 1854, he built an experimental rotary steam engine, which when installed in a 300-ton screw-propelled ship, reportedly achieved an rpm of 45 and a top speed of 14 mph in tests conducted by the firm of Boulton & Watt. By comparison, a pair of conventional direct-acting engines later installed in the same ship achieved an rpm of 28 and a top speed of only 8 mph. A few years prior in 1850, Wimshurst developed an instrument for measuring the power exerted by a propeller shaft—a forerunner of the torsion meter, an instrument for measuring the power transmitted by turbine
s.
Henry Wimshurst was the father of James Wimshurst
, a late-19th century inventor who developed the Wimshurst machine
and an early device for generating X-rays.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
shipbuilder.
Wimshurst was in business at Ratcliffe Cross Dock in east London. He is remembered primarily as the builder of , the world's first propeller-driven steamship.
While Wimshurst cannot take credit for Archimedes revolutionary propulsion system—which was the invention of Francis Pettit Smith
Francis Pettit Smith
Sir Francis Pettit Smith was an English inventor and, along with Frédéric Sauvage and John Ericsson, one of a number of people with a claim to having been the inventor of the screw propeller...
—he was an "ardent supporter" of Smith and his technological breakthrough. He would later claim to have proposed an improved, two-bladed version of Smith's original propeller which was subsequently installed on the vessel.
After completing Archimedes in 1839, Wimshurst built a second screw-propelled steamship in 1840, Novelty, described as the world's first screw-propelled cargo ship and the first screw-propelled ship to make a commercial voyage.
Wimshurst himself had an inventive turn of mind, and filed a number of patents during the course of his career. In 1854, he built an experimental rotary steam engine, which when installed in a 300-ton screw-propelled ship, reportedly achieved an rpm of 45 and a top speed of 14 mph in tests conducted by the firm of Boulton & Watt. By comparison, a pair of conventional direct-acting engines later installed in the same ship achieved an rpm of 28 and a top speed of only 8 mph. A few years prior in 1850, Wimshurst developed an instrument for measuring the power exerted by a propeller shaft—a forerunner of the torsion meter, an instrument for measuring the power transmitted by turbine
Turbine
A turbine is a rotary engine that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work.The simplest turbines have one moving part, a rotor assembly, which is a shaft or drum with blades attached. Moving fluid acts on the blades, or the blades react to the flow, so that they move and...
s.
Henry Wimshurst was the father of James Wimshurst
James Wimshurst
James Wimshurst was an English inventor, engineer and shipwright. Though 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.-Biography:Wimshurst was born...
, a late-19th century inventor who developed the Wimshurst machine
Wimshurst machine
The Wimshurst influence machine is an electrostatic generator, a machine for generating high voltages developed between 1880 and 1883 by British inventor James Wimshurst ....
and an early device for generating X-rays.