“Recent Influence Machines”, in Nature, May 3, 1883, pp 12-14 in the issue of pp 1-24, with two drawings in text featuring the Voss machine and then a larger 6”x4” engraving of the Wimshurst machine. Offered here is the weekly issue, extracted from a larger bound volume, in Very Good condition. $100
Also of interest is the four-page lead article “Life of Sir William Rowan Hamilton”, a biography by Robert Perceaval Graves and published by the Dublin Press the year earlier in 1882.
“These machines belong to a class of electrostatic generators called influence machines, which separate electric charges through electrostatic induction, or influence, not depending on friction for their operation. Earlier machines in this class were developed by Wilhelm Holtz (1865 and 1867), August Toepler (1865), J. Robert Voss (1880), and others. The older machines are less efficient and exhibit an unpredictable tendency to switch their polarity. The Wimshurst does not have this defect.
In a Wimshurst machine, the two insulated discs and their metal sectors rotate in opposite directions passing the crossed metal neutralizer bars and their brushes. An imbalance of charges is induced, amplified, and collected by two pairs of metal combs with points placed near the surfaces of each disk. These collectors are mounted on insulating supports and connected to the output terminals. The positive feedback increases the accumulating charges exponentially until the dielectric breakdown voltage of the air is reached and an electric spark jumps across the gap.”—Wiki
I’ve seen that Wimshurst introduced his machine for the first time in 1883 but I cannot determine exactly when or where, though this seems Nature issue seems to be a good possibility.
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