EAW007912 ENGLAND (1947). The Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company Works, Wallsend, 1947

The Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company Works, Wallsend,



Sir Charles Algernon Parsons was an English engineer, most remembered for his invention of the steam turbine and contributions to marine engineering.



Charles Parsons became an apprentice at the engineering firm of W H Armstrong in Newcastle, where he was permitted to develop a steam engine at his own cost. He then joined Kitson's in Yorkshire, working on torpedoes, followed by a position as head of the electrical equipment department with a ship engine manufacturer in Newcastle.



It was there in 1884 that Parsons developed a turbine engine and electrical generator that were able to produce a good supply of electricity cheaply and which revolutionised naval transport and warfare. Previous steam engines had been very noisy. By 1889 350 of Parsons’s steam turbines had been supplied.



Parsons had the idea of powering a ship by steam turbine, and in 1894 the ship Turbinia was successfully tested. Despite the success of the turbine engine, initial trials with one propeller were disappointing. After discovering the problem of cavitation and constructing the first cavitation tunnel, Parsons' research led to him fitting three axial-flow turbines to three shafts, each shaft in turn driving three propellers, giving a total of nine propellers.



Parsons decided to demonstrate his invention at the Spithead Naval Review in 1897, weaving in-between and outstripping the other warships in the harbour after Queen Victoria had inspected them.



Following this he set up the Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company. Two years later, HMS Viper, a turbine-driven destroyer, was launched, followed by HMS Cobra; by 1904, 26 ships powered by steam turbines were in operation.



By 1910 all the leading engineering and shipbuilding companies in the U.K. had taken licences to build Parsons turbines



1956 Acquired by Richardsons, Westgarth and Co



The company was absorbed into C. A. Parsons and Company and survives in the Heaton area of Newcastle as part of Siemens, a German industrial conglomerate.

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Sources used:

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/onlinestuff/

people/charles%20algernon%20parsons.aspx



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbinia



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsons_Marine_Steam_Turbine_Company

[[Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company]]



http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Parsons_Marine_Steam_Turbine_Co



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