All About Engines

CHAPTER VI Steam Turbines THE primitive steam engines devised by Hero and Branca, which were described in Chapter II., differed from the engines which have just been described in the fact that rotary motion was obtained without the use of reciprocating parts. The use of a piston by Papin turned men’s minds into another direction, and the success of Newcomen and Watt completely eclipsed for a hundred years the older ideas. But this does not mean that they were for- gotten entirely. Most engineers would have admitted the disadvantage of starting and stopping the motion of heavy masses of metal twice in every revolution, and many—even Watt himself—sought long and earnestly for some means of converting the energy of steam directly into rotary motion. For nearly a hundred years the Patent Office Records were studded with unsuccessful efforts, and it was not until 1884 that anyone approached within measurable distance of success. In that year the Hon. C. A. Parsons patented a “ reaction ” turbine, and in the year following the Swedish engineer, Dr. Gustaf de Laval, patented one of the “ impulse ” type. The initial difficulties were very great, and for some years progress was slow and tentative. But when the difficulties of 148