Abstract
DR. HENRY WILDE, whose death was announced in NATURE of April 3, was a man of remarkable individuality and a pioneer in electrical engineering. He was born in Manchester in 1833. During his apprenticeship he experimented with voltaic cells, electrical machines, electrical kites, and the electro-deposition of metals. He soon realised the great commercial possibilities of the applications, of electricity, and he decided, when, he was twenty-three years of age, to commence in business as a telegraph engineer and lightning-conductor expert. Several years o were devoted to the invention of a magneto-electrie alphabetic telegraph. Experiments with electro-magnets led to the design of an improved electrid generator described in his patents of 1863 and 1865. Wilde's “dynamo-electric machines”—as they were named by Charles Brooke, F.R.S.—quickly replaced batteries for electro-deposition ooo.lid arc lighting, but in use they had the serious disadvantage of becoming very hot. In the endravour to cure this fault Wilde designed a very different type of dynamo. This was a multipolar machine, with sixteen pairs of electro-magnets, which was made self-exciting by a “minor” current from four of the armature bobbins. Both this and the earlier machine were used by Elkington for the electrolytic refining of copper.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
G., W. Dr. Henry Wilde, F.R.S. . Nature 103, 129–130 (1919). https://doi.org/10.1038/103129a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/103129a0