Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The modern steam turbine was invented in 1884 by Charles Parsons, whose first model was connected to a dynamo that generated 7.5 kilowatts (10.1 hp) of electricity. [12] The invention of Parsons' steam turbine made cheap and plentiful electricity possible and revolutionized marine transport and naval warfare. [13] Parsons' design was a reaction ...
Used early on in electrical generation and to power ships, turbines were bladed wheels that created rotary motion when high pressure steam was passed through them. The efficiency of large steam turbines was considerably better than the best compound engines, while also being much simpler, more reliable, smaller and lighter all at the same time ...
It specialised in building the steam turbine engines that he had invented for marine use. [1] The first vessel powered by a Parsons turbine was Turbinia , launched in 1894. [ 2 ] The successful demonstration of this vessel led to the creation of the company and the building of engines for the first two turbine-powered destroyers for the Royal ...
The uniflow engine used poppet valves and half cylinders which allowed steam to pass into the engine was then used to create a high pressure environment that was key to the function of the uniflow engine. It was used in ships, steam locomotives and steam wagons but was displaced by steam turbines and later marine diesel engines. [50] [52] [53] [17]
The GE steam turbine locomotives were both the first turbine locomotives to be built in North America as well as GE's only steam-powered locomotives. [2] In the words of history professor and author Jeffrey W. Schramm, the locomotives "were the most ambitious and technologically advanced locomotives to have traveled American rails to that point."
In May 1954 Baldwin built a 4,500 horsepower (3,400 kW) steam turbine–electric locomotive for freight service on the Norfolk & Western Railway (N&W), nicknamed the Jawn Henry after the legend of John Henry, a rock driller who famously raced against a steam drill and won, only to die immediately after. Length including tenders was 161 ft 1-1/2 ...
Steam turbines were fueled by coal or, later, fuel oil or nuclear power. The marine steam turbine developed by Sir Charles Algernon Parsons [3] raised the power-to-weight ratio. He achieved publicity by demonstrating it unofficially in the 100-foot (30 m) Turbinia at the Spithead Naval Review in 1897. This facilitated a generation of high-speed ...
The main use for steam turbines is in electricity generation (in the 1990s about 90% of the world's electric production was by use of steam turbines) [5] however the recent widespread application of large gas turbine units and typical combined cycle power plants has resulted in reduction of this percentage to the 80% regime for steam turbines ...