Inventor of the steam turbine.

Parsons was born in Ireland in 1854. He read mathematics at Cambridge, but later in his career he shunned calculation, relying instead on an intuition that baffled his colleagues.

While working for the electrical section of a Gateshead engineering company, Parsons came to appreciate the need for an engine suitable for connection to a dynamo, and in 1884 he built his first turbine. He was astute enough to realise that the pressure-drop in the engine had to be multi-stage. This was where other inventors had failed.

The turbines were first used for electricity production, but Parsons later moved into power generation for ships, continually refining his designs. In 1887 he demonstrated the 100-foot Turbinia to Queen Victoria. Larger ships soon followed, including the Cunard liners Lusitania and Mauretania.

Towards the end of his career Parsons was interested in optical instruments. He died age 77 during a voyage to the West Indies