Everything about Charles Algernon Parsons totally explained
Sir Charles Algernon Parsons, O.M. (
13 June 1854 –
11 February 1931) was an Irish
engineer, best known for his invention of the
steam turbine. He worked as an engineer on
dynamo and
turbine design, and
power generation, with great influence on the naval and
electrical engineering fields. He also developed optical equipment, for
searchlights and
telescopes.
Born in London, Parsons was the youngest son of the famous astronomer
William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse. He attended
Trinity College, Dublin and
St. John's College, Cambridge, graduating from the latter in 1877 with a first-class honours degree in mathematics. He then joined the
Newcastle-based engineering firm of
W.G. Armstrong as an apprentice, an unusual step for the son of an earl; then moved to
Kitsons in Yorkshire where he worked on rocket powered
torpedoes; and then in 1884 moved to
Clarke, Chapman and Co., ship engine manufacturers near Newcastle, where he was head of their electrical equipment development. He developed a turbine engine there in 1884 and immediately utilised the new engine to drive an electrical generator, which he also designed.
In 1889, he founded
C. A. Parsons and Company in Newcastle to produce
turbo-generators to his design. In 1894 he regained certain patent rights from
Clarke Chapman. He subsequently founded the
Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company in Newcastle.
Famously in June 1897 his turbine powered
yacht,
Turbinia, was exhibited moving at speed in a
Royal Navy fleet review off
Portsmouth, to demonstrate the great potential of the new technology. The
Turbinia moved at 34 knots. The fastest Royal Navy ships using other technologies reached 27 knots. Part of the speed improvement was attributable to the slender hull of the
Turbinia. Today,
Turbinia is housed in a purpose-built gallery at
the Discovery Museum, Newcastle.
Parsons received the
Rumford Medal of the
Royal Society in
1902, was
knighted in
1911 and made a member of the
Order of Merit in
1927.
The Parsons turbine company survives in the
Heaton area of Newcastle and is now part of
Siemens, a
German conglomerate. Sometimes referred to as Siemens Parsons, the company recently completed a major
redevelopment programme, reducing the size of its site by around three quarters and installing the latest
manufacturing technology. In 1925 Charles Parsons acquired the Grubb Telescope Company and renamed it
Grubb Parsons. That company survived in the Newcastle area until 1985.
Charles Parsons' ancestral home at
Birr Castle in Ireland houses a museum detailing the contribution the Parsons family have made to the fields of science and engineering, with part of the museum given over to marine engineering work of Charles Parsons.
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