Turbinia

1897 · Turbine Steamer · Work 194 of 1,871

Turbinia, 1897, Turbine Steamer

A narrow Victorian steam launch of the 1890s: a long very slender riveted steel hull about a hundred feet long and only nine feet wide, its deck low and almost flush with the water, one thin upright funnel amidships and a small conning tower forward of it, everything below the closed steel deck, running at extreme speed with a rearing bow, a massive bow wave and a high foaming wake astern, passing lines of anchored masted warships at a naval review.

What it was used for
Trials vessel and sales instrument of the Marine Steam Turbine Company formed in 1894; only the Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company, formed after the fleet review, was, as the ASME landmark statement records, given the sole licence for building marine steam turbines; the same source says a comprehensive series of independent trials was run in April 1897 by Professor J. A. Ewing. Hull 100 feet long, the first installation planned for some 1,500 horsepower at 2,000 rpm; finally three shafts each carrying three 18-inch propellers, nine in all, later single screws of 28 inches. Her appearance was at the Diamond Jubilee fleet review at Spithead on 26 June 1897, before the Admiralty.
What was new
What was new was not the turbine but that a marine turbine could turn its revolutions into thrust: Parsons moved from a compound radial-flow turbine to three parallel-flow turbines with one compound stage, high, medium and low pressure, on each shaft (ASME). He built multistage reaction turbines where de Laval pursued the single-stage impulse design; Cyrus B. Meher-Homji gives Parsons's reasons as lower speeds needing no reduction gearing, higher efficiency and avoidance of steam erosion. The barb: her speed at the review is uncertain. The ASME statement records 29.6 knots over the measured mile in December, 32.76 in April 1897 and "over 34 knots" as a maximum, yet captions the review photograph "some 34 knots"; National Historic Ships says "over 30 knots", the Discovery Museum 34. The legend wobbles too: ASME writes she appeared "despite common belief to the contrary" with tacit approval, while Meher-Homji writes that Parsons "gate-crashed" the event.

Connections

Every connection names its kind. “Forerunner” on its own would be a claim.

  1. Follows fromParsons Steam Turbine1884Turbinia was built to test Parsons's own steam turbine at sea. The ASME landmark account dates his invention to 1884, when he filed "a patent for a compound reaction steam turbine"; in the following years lubrication, blade efficiency and control were solved and the turbine was applied to dynamos. Turbinia was launched in 1894.Source: ASME-Landmark: Turbinia, Engineering and Technology History Wiki · The Maritime Foundation (Richard Maudsley): Sir Charles Parsons and the birth of the steam turbine (Patent 1884)

Further reading