The Winter machine is an advanced example of the frictional electrical machine, in which the potential difference between the two electrodes is generated by the accumulation of electric charges produced through rubbing.
INSIGHTS
The Winter machine – an improvement of the similar Ramsden machine – was invented by professor Winter from Vienna in 1865.
The disk axis is made of glass and brass. The disk is rubbed by two pads located in a mahogany frame hold by a glass rod. What makes the building quality interesting is the two big inductive rings isolated by glass supporters located on both sides of the machine. One of them, when connected to the pads, works as the negative conductor, while the other is the main positive conductor . The glass disk rotates within the ring many times. A brass sphere on an insulating support is placed in the front part of the machine. On the back there are two unloaders. On the main conductor’s side there is a massive Leiden bottle protected by an octagonal wood and glass window.
CESA restoration of 1997 by Aldo Bellocchio and Gregorio Chiarenza from the electronic department.
This item, together with some other material coming from the “Scuola Laboratorio di Elettronica degli Operai" school in Via S. Marta, was registered in 1954 in the inventory book SLEO of the “Istituto Di Elettronica Industriale”.
Technical Data Sheet
Creator: Carl Winter
Period: second half of XIX century
Materials: Mahogany and other woods, brass, iron, glass, velvet
Dimensions: 740 x 490 x 1400
