Wimshurst Machine

The Wimshurst Machine is one of the many scientific tools used by students, staff, and researchers at UC, and represents innovation of its time. While this technology is now readily available and simple to make at home, there was a time when it was transformative, particulary in the classroom.

The purpose of a Wimshurst machine is to generate high voltages of electricity. While it was typical for this machine to be found in a physics laboratory, during the nineteenth century Wimshurst machines were also occasionally used to power x-ray machines.

During the 1870's, the College was moving to the new Worcester Street site and had a roll of less than 400 students and fewer than ten staff. Among these academics was Alexander Bickerton (1842-1929), co-founding professor of the College, alongside John Macmillan Brown and Charles Cook. Bickerton began teaching in 1874 and taught physics, one of the first subjects offered to students at Canterbury College. Among Bickerton's students was Sir Ernest Rutherford; the renowned nuclear physicist who is most notably recognised for his contribution to our understanding of the atomic particle. Bickerton's impact witin the classroom was lasting. Rutherford once said, "[Bickerton's] enthusiasm for science... gave a stimulus to me to start investigations of my own."

With the help of Bickerton, Rutherford went on to occupy the cloak room under the Modern Language room, now known as Rutherford's Den, located in the basement of the Clock Tower building. Today, the space houses an interactive exhibition that follows Rutherford's innovative journey with science and reminds us of the impact he had on science education and research.

This example of a Wimshurst machine was made especially for the 1979 exhibition at Rutherford's Den, used in a display with a model of the physicist. The machine was made in-house by the University's Physics Department workshop, to original plans, as a replacement for the Voss machine that had been previously used in the department. The rotating plates are originals that had been in storage, and may have been part of a machine in use in the 1880s or 1890s, around the time Rutherford was tinkering with magnetism and electrical science.