This machine is the forerunner of the turbo-generators that today provide most of the world's electricity. It is the first experimental prototype produced by Charles Parsons, the inventor and engineer who promoted the steam turbine as a lighter, smaller and more efficient power unit to replace the steam piston engine.

Parsons was a son of the Earl of Rosse, an eminent Victorian astronomer, and learned much engineering and science from him. He studied mathematics at Cambridge but, unusually for the time, then entered Sir William Armstrong's works as a premium apprentice to add to his engineering education.

In the turbine engine the expanding steam works continuously over many turbine stages as it passes from one to the next. This gave far higher efficiency than was possible with the steam piston engine. The steam turbine combines freedom from vibration with high speed suited to electrical generators.

Parsons also pioneered the use of steam turbines in ships. To promote this he 'gatecrashed' the Naval Review in 1897 at Spithead with his vessel Turbinia, steaming through the lines of anchored battleships at 30 knots and outpacing patrolling naval vessels. For some 50 years, until the advent of the large diesel, the steam turbine became the standard powerplant for large vessels.

Inv. 1890-59