Henry Wimshurst (1804–1884)
''

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

'', No. 129, 9 April 1932. was a 19th-century British

shipbuilder Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other Watercraft, floating vessels. In modern times, it normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation th ...

. Wimshurst was in business at Ratcliffe Cross Dock in

east London East London is the part of London, England, east of the ancient City of London and north of the River Thames as it begins to widen. East London developed as London Docklands, London's docklands and the primary industrial centre. The expansion of ...

. He is remembered primarily as the builder of , the world's first propeller-driven

steamship A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...

.Smith, p. 70.

Biography

While Wimshurst cannot take credit for ''Archimedes'' revolutionary propulsion system—which was the invention of

Francis Pettit Smith Sir Francis Pettit Smith (9 February 1808 – 12 February 1874) was an English inventor and, along with John Ericsson, one of the inventors of the screw propeller. He was also the driving force behind the construction of the world's first s ...

—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

in 1840, ''Novelty'', described as the world's first screw-propelled

cargo ship A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's List of seas, seas and Ocean, oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. ...

and the first screw-propelled ship to make a commercial voyage."Calendar of Industrial Pioneers"
''

'', No. 110, 19 August 1922. 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 A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a Cylinder (locomotive), cyl ...

, which when installed in a 300-ton screw-propelled ship, reportedly achieved an

rpm Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or r⋅min−1) is a unit of rotational speed (or rotational frequency) for rotating machines. One revolution per minute is equivalent to hertz. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 def ...

of 45 and a top speed of 14 mph in tests conducted by the firm of

Boulton & Watt Boulton & Watt was an early British engineering and manufacturing firm in the business of designing and making marine and stationary steam engines. Founded in the English West Midlands around Birmingham in 1775 as a partnership between the Engl ...

. 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 Torsion may refer to: Science * Torsion (mechanics), the twisting of an object due to an applied torque * Torsion of spacetime, the field used in Einstein–Cartan theory and ** Alternatives to general relativity * Torsion angle, in chemistry Bio ...

meter, an instrument for measuring the power transmitted by

turbine A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced can be used for generating electrical ...

s.Seaton, p. 25. Henry Wimshurst was the father of James Wimshurst, a late-19th century inventor who developed the

Wimshurst machine The Wimshurst machine or Wimshurst influence machine is an electrostatic generator, a machine for generating high voltages developed between 1880 and 1883 by British inventor James Wimshurst (1832–1903). It has a distinctive appearance wi ...

and an early device for generating

X-rays An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...

. He also had a daughter Emily Harriet who married Charles Umney, one of the most prominent chemists and druggists of his day. Emily died in Milan in 1912.

Footnotes

References

* Brooman, R. A. (ed.) (1854): ''The Mechanics' Magazine'', Volume LXI, Robertson, Brooman and Co., London. * Fox, Stephen (2003): ''Transatlantic: Samuel Cunard, Isambard Brunel, and the Great Atlantic Steamships'', page 146, HarperCollins, . * Seaton, A. E. (1909): The Screw Propeller: and Other Competing Instruments for Marine Propulsion, page 25, Charles Griffin & Co., London, J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia. * Smith, Edgar C. (1905): ''A Short history of Naval and Marine Engineering'', printed for Babcock & Wilcox Ltd. by University Press, Cambridge. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wimshurst Henry 1804 births 1884 deaths English shipbuilders 19th-century English businesspeople