d 



Figure 24. — Saxton's magneto generator. 

 From Journal of the Franklin Institute, 1834, 

 vol. 13, p. 155. 



Although Elkington felt that the magnetoelectric 

 machine did not replace the voltaic cell, Woolrich, 

 during the following decade, constructed similar 

 machines (figs. 30, 31) for Elkington'^ and a fev,' other 

 electroplating companies in Birmingham.^" In 1851, 

 William Millward, of Birmingham, patented a ma- 

 chine ^' (fig. 32) that was very similar to VVoolrich's. 



A few years later a more important application of 

 the magnetoelectric machine was demonstrated — 

 one that had many implications for the future. 

 Frederick H. Holmes showed, in 1853, that a magneto 

 might be used to run an arc light, much to the sur- 

 prise of the well known authority on electricity, E. 

 Becquerel.^^ The latter subsequently declared that 



^''Mechanics Magazine, 1849, vol. 51, pp. 271-272; Illustrated 

 London News, October 2, 1852, vol. 21, p. 295. 



3" Samuel Timmins, Birmingham and the Midland Hardware 

 District, London, 1866, pp. 488-494. 



31 British patent 13536 (February 28, 1851). 



32 D. K. Clark, The Exhibited Machinery of 1862, London, 1 864, 

 pp. 286, 431; J. H. Gladstone, "Ligiitliouse Illumination by 

 Magneto-Electricity," Qjiarterly Journal of Science, 1864, vol. 

 1, pp. 70-75; Les Mondes, 1864, vol. 4, pp. 57-61. 



Figure 25. — Clarke's magneto generator. 

 From Annals of Electricity, January 1837, vol. 

 I, p. 146. 



"none but a fool or an Englishman would have be- 

 lieved it possible." 



After several years of experimentation. Holmes 

 patented in 1856 a multiple disk armature machine 

 consisting of many Woolrich generators mounted in 

 a single frame (fig. 33).'' Instead of one disk armature 

 that rotated between the poles of a single bank of 

 permanent magnets. Holmes spun six disk armatures 

 on a common axis between seven parallel banks 

 of permanent magnets. Every other disk was dis- 

 placed through a small angle so as to reduce the 

 fluctuations of the total induced current. The 



33 British patent 573 (March 7 and September 6, 1856). 

 This is not the first patent of a Woolrich disk armature ma- 

 chine. As noted earlier in this paper, William Millward took 

 out a patent on a single disk armature machine in 1851. 

 Later this paper will discuss a patent on a multiple disk 

 armature machine taken out in 1852 by E. C. Shepard for 

 Florise NoUet. 



PAPER 30: DEVELOPMENT OF ELECTRICAL TECHNOLOGY IN THE 19TH CENTURY: III 



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