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Charles Algernon Parsons

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The HonourableSir
Charles Algernon Parsons
OMKCBFRS
Born13 June 1854
London, England,
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Died11 February 1931(1931-02-12)(aged 76)
Kingston Harbour,Colony of Jamaica
NationalityEnglish
CitizenshipBritish subject
Alma materTrinity College, Dublin
St. John's College, Cambridge
Known forSteam turbine
SpouseKatharine Parsons(née Bethell) (m. 1883) (d. 1933)
ChildrenRachel Mary Parsons(1885–1956)
Algernon George Parsons (b. 1886–1918)
AwardsRumford Medal(1902)
Albert Medal(1911)
Franklin Medal(1920)
Faraday Medal(1923)
Copley Medal(1928)
Bessemer Gold Medal (1929)
Scientific career
FieldsEngineering
InstitutionsHeaton, Newcastle

Sir Charles Algernon Parsons,OM,KCB,FRS(13 June 1854 – 11 February 1931) was aBritishengineer,best known for his invention of the compoundsteam turbine,[1]and as the eponym ofC. A. Parsons and Company.He worked as an engineer ondynamoandturbinedesign, andpower generation,with great influence on the naval andelectrical engineeringfields. He also developed optical equipment forsearchlightsandtelescopes.

Career and commercial activity[edit]

Parsons was born into anAnglo-Irishfamily on 13 June 1854[2][3][4]in London as the youngest son of the famous astronomerWilliam Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse.(The family seat isBirr Castle,County Offaly,Ireland, and the town ofBirrwas called Parsonstown, after the family, from 1620 to 1901.)[5]

With his three brothers, Parsons was educated at home in Ireland by private tutors[6](includingJohn Purser), all of whom were well versed in the sciences and also acted as practical assistants to the Earl in his astronomical work. (One of them later became, asSir Robert Ball,Royal Astronomer of Ireland.) Parsons then read mathematics atTrinity College, Dublinand atSt. John's College, Cambridge,graduating from the latter in 1877 with a first-class honours degree.[7]He joined theNewcastle-based engineering firm ofW.G. Armstrongas an apprentice, an unusual step for the son of an earl. Later he moved toKitsonsin Leeds, where he worked on rocket-poweredtorpedoes.[8]

Steam turbine engine[edit]

Firstcompound steam turbine,built by Parsons in 1887
Parsons' first 1 MWturbogeneratorbuilt for the city ofElberfeld, Germanyin 1899 producedsingle-phase electricityat 4 kV

In 1884 Parsons moved toClarke, Chapman and Co.,ship-engine manufacturers operating near Newcastle, where he became head of their electrical-equipment development. He usedRegnault's large collection of steam properties ( "data of the physicists" ) to develop a turbine engine turning at 18,000RPM[9][10]in 1884 and immediately utilised the new engine to drive an electrical generator, which he also designed. Parsons'steam turbinemade cheap and plentiful electricity possible and revolutionised marine transport and naval warfare.[11]

Another type of steam turbine at the time, invented byGustaf de Laval(1845–1913) in the 1880s, was animpulse designthat subjected the mechanism to huge centrifugal forces and so had limited output due to the weakness of the materials available. Parsons explained in his 1911Rede Lecturethat his appreciation of the scaling issue led to his 1884 breakthrough on the compound steam turbine:

It seemed to me that moderate surface velocities and speeds of rotation were essential if the turbine motor was to receive general acceptance as a prime mover. I therefore decided to split up the fall in pressure of the steam into small fractional expansions over a large number of turbines in series, so that the velocity of the steam nowhere should be great...I was also anxious to avoid the well-known cutting action on metal of steam at high velocity.[12]

Founding Parsons and Company[edit]

In 1889 he foundedC. A. Parsons and Companyin Newcastle to produceturbo generatorsto his design.[13]In the same year he set up theNewcastle and District Electric Lighting Company(DisCO). In 1890, DisCo openedForth Banks Power Station,the first power station in the world to generate electricity using turbo generators.[14]In 1894 he regained certain patent rights fromClarke Chapman.Although his first turbine was only 1.6% efficient and generated a mere 7.5 kilowatts, rapid incremental improvements in a few years led to his first megawatt turbine, built in 1899 for a generating plant atElberfeldin the German Empire.[12]

The firststeam turbine-powered shipTurbinia:fastest in the world at that time
HMSDreadnought.Considered the first modernbattleship:in 1906 it was the fastest in the world due to Parsons'steam turbine

Marine steam turbine applications[edit]

Also interested in marine applications, Parsons founded theParsons Marine Steam Turbine Companyin Newcastle. Famously, in June 1897, his turbine-poweredyacht,Turbinia,turned up unannounced at the Navy Review for theDiamond JubileeofQueen VictoriaatSpithead,on 26 June 1897, in front of thePrince of Wales,foreign dignitaries, andLords of the Admiralty.Moving at speed atQueen Victoria'sDiamond JubileeFleet ReviewoffPortsmouth,to demonstrate the great potential of the new technology. TheTurbiniamoved at 34 kn (63 km/h; 39 mph); the fastestRoyal Navyships using other technologies reached 27 kn (50 km/h; 31 mph). Part of the speed improvement came from the slender hull of theTurbinia.[15]

Within two years thedestroyersHMSViperandCobrawere launched with Parsons' turbines, soon followed by the first turbine-poweredpassenger ship,Clyde steamerTSKing Edwardin 1901; the first turbine transatlantic linersRMSVictorianandVirginianin 1905; and the first turbine-powered battleship,HMSDreadnoughtin 1906, all of them driven by Parsons' turbine engines.[13](As of 2012Turbiniais housed in a purpose-built gallery at theDiscovery Museum,Newcastle.[16])

Honours and awards[edit]

Parsons was elected aFellow of the Royal Societyin June 1898, received theirRumford Medalin 1902 and theirCopley Medalin 1928, and delivered theirBakerian Lecturein 1918.[17]He served as the president of theBritish Associationfrom 1916 to 1919.[18]He was an Invited Speaker of theICMin 1924 at Toronto.[19]Knightedin 1911, he became a member of theOrder of Meritin 1927.[20]In 1929 theIron and Steel Instituteawarded him theBessemer Gold Medal.[21]

Surviving companies[edit]

The Parsons turbine company survives in theHeatonarea of Newcastle as part ofSiemens,aGermanconglomerate.[22][23]In 1925 Charles Parsons acquired theGrubb Telescope Companyand renamed itGrubb Parsons.[24]That company survived in the Newcastle area until 1985.[25]

Parsons also designed theAuxetophone,an earlycompressed-air gramophone.[26]

Personal life and death[edit]

In 1883, Parsons marriedKatharine Bethell,the daughter of William F. Bethell. They had two children: the engineer and campaignerRachel Mary Parsons(b. 1885), and Algernon George "Tommy" Parsons (b. 1886), who was killed in action during World War I in 1918, aged 31.[27]

They had a London home at 1Upper Brook Street,Mayfair,from 1918 to 1931.[28]

Sir Charles Algernon Parsons died on 11 February 1931, on board the steamshipDuchess of Richmondwhile on a cruise with his wife. The cause of death was given asneuritis.[29]A memorial service was held atWestminster Abbeyon 3 March 1931.[30]Parsons was buried in the parish church of St Bartholomew's inKirkwhelpingtoninNorthumberland.[31]

His widow, Katharine, died at her home in Ray Demesne, Kirkwhelpington, Northumberland in 1933.[32]Rachel Parsons died in 1956; stableman Denis James Pratt was convicted of her manslaughter.[33]

In 1919, Katharine and her daughter Rachel co-founded theWomen's Engineering SocietywithEleanor Shelley-Rolls,Margaret, Lady Moir,Laura Annie Willson,Margaret RowbothamandJanetta Mary Ornsby,which is still in existence today. Sir Charles was initially a supportive member of the organisation until his wife's resignation.[34][27]

Commemoration[edit]

Parsons' plaque in Birr Castle

Parsons' ancestral home atBirr Castlein Ireland houses a museum detailing the contribution the Parsons family have made to the fields of science and engineering, with part of the museum given over to the engineering work of Charles Parsons.[35]

Parsons is depicted on the reverse of an Irish silver 15EurossilverProof cointhat was struck in 2017.[36]

The Irish Academy of Engineering awards The Parsons Medal, named after Charles Parsons, every year to an engineer who has made an exceptional contribution to the practice of engineering. Previous winners include Prof. Tony Fagan (2016), Dr. Edmond Harty (2017), Prof. Sir John McCanny (2018) and Michael McLaughlin (2019).[37]

Selected works[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^"Sir Charles Algernon Parsons".Encyclopedia Britannica.n.d.Retrieved6 September2018.
  2. ^"Charles Parsons the Person".University of Limerick.Archived fromthe originalon 11 September 2016.Retrieved26 July2015.... was an English engineer,
  3. ^Weightman, Gavin (2011).Children of Light.Atlantic Books. p. 112.ISBN978-0857893000.Charles Algernon Parsons was from the English aristocracy
  4. ^Invernizzi, Costante Mario (2013).Closed Power Cycles: Thermodynamic Fundamentals and Applications.Springer. pp. 1–.ISBN978-1-4471-5140-1.
  5. ^"Search: Parsonstown".www.offalyarchives.com.
  6. ^The Earl of Rosse (Autumn 1968)."William Parsons, third Earl of Rosse"(PDF).Hermathena(107): 5–13.JSTOR23040086.Retrieved6 September2018.
  7. ^"Parsons, the Hon. Charles Algernon (PRSS873CA)".A Cambridge Alumni Database.University of Cambridge.
  8. ^"The Turbine Revolution".Key Military.31 December 2020.Retrieved13 June2022.
  9. ^Hammack, Bill(8 November 2021)."Reclaiming Engineering in the Minds of the Public"(PDF).
  10. ^Hammack, Bill(11 May 2023)."The Steam Turbine: The Surprising Relationship of Engineering & Science".YouTube.
  11. ^"Charles Parsons (1854–1931)".Profiles of Scientists from Irish Universities.Archived fromthe originalon 10 January 2008.Retrieved6 February2005.
  12. ^abSmil, Vaclav (2005).Creating the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations of 1867–1914 and Their Lasting Impact.Oxford University Press. p.62.ISBN0-19-516874-7.Transformer coltman 1988.
  13. ^ab"Chronology of Charles Parsons".Birr Castle Scientific and Heritage Foundation. Archived fromthe originalon 25 December 2008.Retrieved3 January2009.
  14. ^Parsons, Robert Hodson (1939). "Ch. X".The Early Days of the Power Station Industry.Cambridge: University Press. p. 171.
  15. ^Robertson, Paul (n.d.)."Charles Algernon Parsons".Cambridge University:125 Years of Engineering Excellence.Retrieved6 September2018.
  16. ^"Collections at Discovery Museum".Archived from the original on 28 July 2012.Retrieved19 June2013.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  17. ^"Lists of Royal Society Fellows 1660–2007".London: The Royal Society. Archived fromthe originalon 24 March 2010.Retrieved15 July2010.
  18. ^Parsons, Charles A. (1919)."President's Address".Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.London: John Murray.
  19. ^Parsons, C. A."The steam turbine"(PDF).In:Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians in Toronto, August 11–16. 1924.Vol. 2. pp. 465–472. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 1 December 2017.Retrieved2 October2019.
  20. ^"Charles Algernon Parsons (1854–1931)".Archived fromthe originalon 14 February 2012.Retrieved6 September2018.
  21. ^"Awards archive".IOM3.Retrieved9 September2020.
  22. ^Warburton, Dan (20 April 2009)."Focus on the famous Parsons factory in Heaton".The Newcastle Chronicle.Retrieved13 June2022.
  23. ^"North East engineering company investing in future growth with move to 120,000sq ft CA Parsons Works site in Newcastle – NOF".NOF.29 September 2020.Retrieved13 June2022.
  24. ^Henry C. King (2003) [1955].The History of the Telescope(Dover ed.). Courier Corporation (published 1979). p. 387.ISBN9780486432656.
  25. ^Ian Ridpath (27 June 1985)."A view of the stars from a place in the sun".The Guardian.p. 13.Retrieved13 June2022– viaNewspapers.com.
  26. ^ Reiss, Eric (2007).The compleat talking machine: a collector's guide to antique phonographs.Chandler, Ariz: Sonoran Pub. p. 217.ISBN978-1886606227.
  27. ^abHeald, Henrietta (2019).Magnificent women and their revolutionary machines.London.ISBN978-1-78352-660-4.OCLC1080083743.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  28. ^"Upper Brook Street: North Side Pages 200-210 Survey of London: Volume 40, the Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair, Part 2 (The Buildings). Originally published by London County Council, London, 1980".British History Online.Retrieved12 July2020.
  29. ^"Sir Charles Parsons and Sir Arthurt Dorman". Obituaries.The Times.No. 45746. London. 13 February 1931. col B, p. 14.
  30. ^'The Abbey Scientists' Hall, A.R. p48: London; Roger & Robert Nicholson; 1966
  31. ^"Bid to restore Parsons' graves at Kirkwhelpington".Hexham Courant.13 February 2018.Retrieved27 February2021.
  32. ^"Obituary The Hon. Lady Parsons".Heaton Works Journal.Women's Engineering Society.December 1933. Archived fromthe originalon 6 January 2015.Retrieved6 January2015.
  33. ^"A history of General Motors in pictures".The Telegraph.June 2009.Retrieved6 January2015.
  34. ^Heald, Henrietta (23 May 2014)."What was a girl to do? Rachel Parsons (1885–1956): engineer and feminist campaigner".blue-stocking.Retrieved6 January2015.In January 1919, Rachel and her mother, Katharine, established the Women's Engineering Society, with Rachel as the first president and Caroline Haslett, an electrical engineer, as secretary.
  35. ^"Science Centre at Birr Castle".birrcastle.com.n.d.Retrieved26 May2019.
  36. ^"Launch of new €15 silver proof coin to commemorate life and work of Sir Charles Algernon Parsons".Archivedfrom the original on 25 October 2017.
  37. ^McCarron, Fiona."Parsons Medal Award 2020 – iae".Retrieved27 April2020.

Further reading[edit]

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