technologia: Charles Algernon Parsons

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

Sir Charles Algernon Parsons (13 June 1854 – 11 February 1931) was an Anglo-Irish mechanical engineer and inventor who designed the modern steam turbine in 1884. His invention revolutionised marine propulsion, and he was also the founder of C. A. Parsons and Company, developing and building Turbinia (1894), the first steam turbine-powered steamship. He worked as an engineer on dynamo and turbine design, and power generation, with great influence in the naval and electrical engineering fields. He also helped develop optical equipment for searchlights and telescopes. Parsons received the Franklin Medal in 1920, the Faraday Medal in 1923, and the Copley Medal in 1928 for his work, as well as t…

Evidence: 82 • authority: 72

Turbinia is the first steam turbine-powered steamship. Built as an experimental vessel in 1894 by Sir Charles Algernon Parsons, and easily the fastest ship in the world at that time, Turbinia was demonstrated dramatically at the Spithead Navy Review in 1897 and set the standard for the next generation of steamships, the majority of which would be turbine powered. The vessel is currently located at the Discovery Museum in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England, while her original powerplant is located at the Science Museum in London.

Evidence: 45 • authority: 72

SS Otaki was a New Zealand Shipping Company refrigerated cargo steamship that was built in Scotland in 1908 and sunk by a German merchant raider in 1917. Otaki's design is notable because she was the first ship whose propulsion combined reciprocating steam engines with a low-pressure steam turbine. Otaki's loss is also notable because although the merchant raider SMS Möwe sank her, Otaki damaged Möwe enough to force her attacker to return to port, ending her raiding career. Otaki's Master, Archibald Bisset Smith, was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.

Evidence: 36 • authority: 72

A steam turbine or steam turbine engine is a machine or heat engine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work utilising a rotating output shaft. Its modern form was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884 and revolutionized marine propulsion and navigation. Fabrication of a modern steam turbine involves advanced metalwork to form high-grade steel alloys into precision parts using technologies that first became available in the 20th century; continued advances in the durability and efficiency of steam turbines remains central to the energy economics of the 21st century. The largest steam turbine ever built is the 1,770 MW Arabelle steam turbine bui…

Evidence: 27 • authority: 88

Steam Beyond the Gateways: Steamship Connectivity and Industrial Entry in China. Steamships were the first Western transport technology to diffuse widely in China, entering through treaty ports but later spreading beyond them. Using a prefecture-decade panel of 284 prefectures from 1840 to 1927, I find that prefectures gaining steamship connections saw substantially more modern industrial entry, concentrated in trade-intensive sectors. The results are robust to pre-steamship economic fundamentals and competing technologies, and are supported by a shift-share instrument based on hypothetical steamship-navigable access to early treaty ports. Foreign trade responded almost immediately, while n…

Evidence: 27 • authority: 72

A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships came into practical usage during the early 19th century; however, there were exceptions that came before. Steamships usually use the prefix designations of "PS" for paddle steamer or "SS" for screw steamer (using a propeller or screw). As paddle steamers became less common, "SS" is incorrectly assumed by many to stand for "steamship". Ships powered by internal combustion engines use a prefix such as "MV" for motor vessel, so it is not correct to use "SS"…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

TS King Edward was an excursion steamer built at Dumbarton for service down the River Clyde to the Firth of Clyde and associated sea lochs on the west coast of Scotland, as far as Campbeltown. The first commercial vessel to be driven by steam turbines, King Edward operated as a Clyde steamer for half a century from 1901 until 1951, interrupted only by service in the two world wars. The success of the vessel quickly led to the adoption of turbine propulsion for all manner of merchant vessels, from channel ferries and coastal steamers to transatlantic liners.

Evidence: — • authority: 72

A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be transformed by a connecting rod and crank into rotational force for work. The term "steam engine" is normally applied to reciprocating engines, although some authorities have also referred to the steam turbine and devices such as Hero's aeolipile as "steam engines". The essential feature of steam engines is that they are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separated from the combustion products. The ideal thermodynamic cycle used to analyze th…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

C. A. Parsons and Company was a British engineering firm. It was once one of the largest employers on Tyneside as well as the UK's sole indigenous designer and manufacturer of large marine steam turbines. Established in 1889 for the purpose of commercialising the steam turbine, which founder Charles Algernon Parsons had recently invented. One of the earliest applications of Parsons-built turbines was the Forth Banks Power Station, the world's first facility to produce electricity using turbo generators. Throughout the 1890s and 1900s, the firm refined its turbine designs, producing them for both land and maritime purposes, while various other engineering firms quickly secured licences from…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company was a British engineering company based on the River Tyne at Wallsend, North East England.

Evidence: — • authority: 72

engines that Parsons had invented for marine use. The first vessel powered by a Parsons turbine was Turbinia , launched in 1894. The successful and unannounced

Evidence: — • authority: 72

designed and built by George Garrett (1852–1902). 1894 : The first steam turbine powered steamship , Turbinia (easily the fastest ship in the world at the time)