Henry Wilde (engineer)

Henry Wilde (1833 – 28 March 1919)[1] was a wealthy individual from Manchester, England, who used his self-made fortune to indulge his interest in electrical engineering.[2][3]

Wilde invented the dynamo-electric machine, or self-energising dynamo, an invention for which Werner von Siemens is more usually credited and, in fact, discovered independently. At any rate, Wilde was the first to publish,[4] his paper was communicated to the Royal Society by Michael Faraday in 1866.[5]

The self-energising dynamo replaces the permanent magnets of previous designs with electro-magnets and in so doing achieved an enormous increase in power. The machine was considered remarkable at the time, especially since Wilde was fond of spectacular demonstrations, such as the ability of his machine to cause iron bars to melt.[6]

  1. ^ Ronald M. Birse, ‘Wilde, Henry (1833–1919)’, rev. Brian Bowers, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 13 March 2009
  2. ^ "WILDE, Henry". Who's Who. Vol. 59. 1907. p. 1891.
  3. ^ "Reports of the Branches. NORTH-WESTERN (MANCHESTER)". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. Vol. 5. 1895. p. 297.
  4. ^ Henry Wilde, "Experimental researches into electricity and magnetism", Proceedings of the Royal Society, 1866, pp107-111.
  5. ^ Cardwell, p218.
  6. ^ Cardwell, pp218-219.