Charles Algernon Parsons
Charles Algernon Parsons OM KCB ( born June 13, 1854 in London, † February 11, 1931 on board the Duchess of Richmond, Kingston Harbour, Jamaica ) was a British mechanical engineer.
Parsons was the youngest of six sons of the 3rd Earl of Rosse, President of the Royal Society, who was known in science for the construction of the 6-foot- mirror telescope on the family estate in Birr Castle, Ireland. There, Parsons spent the majority of his childhood. His mother, a highly educated woman and also particularly interested in questions of natural science, had on the development of the son a big impact. Charles Parsons never visited in his youth, a public school, but received his knowledge of mathematics, science trained tutors. He also served as a pupil of the astronomer Sir Robert Hall. In 1871 he entered the Trinity College in Dublin and one was two years later undergraduate at St John 's College, Cambridge, where in 1877 he reached the degree of Bachelor of Arts.
From Cambridge he went to the Elswick works of Armstrong in Newcastle upon Tyne. After leaving Elswick in 1881, he came into contact with Sir James Kitson in Leeds and grew two years later in the company Clarke, Chapman and Co. in Gateshead as a junior partner. The following year, 1884, he patented his reaction steam turbine, with its improvement and application he worked on the rest of his life.
After he had separated in 1889 by the firm Clarke, Chapman and Co., while his patents had to give up on his previous designs, he founded CA Parsons & Co in Heaton near Newcastle, where he developed steam turbines for stationary operation. In 1894 he founded continues the Marine Steam Turbine Company in Wallsend -on- Tyne, which built steam turbines for ships. His basic idea was to let the steam parallel to the turbine shaft by multiple pairs flow blades and vanes and gradually implement on the rotor blades, the heat energy of the steam into rotary motion. The speed of his turbine was from the beginning in an area that could be converted by a generator into electrical power without gears. His turbine sat down quickly in electricity generation in steam power plants. Another invention of Charles Parsons was the idea to flow into the center of the steam and relax it in both directions. With this arrangement, the forces cancel in the axial direction caused by the steam pressure to the turbine blades, and burdens on the turbine bearings. His steam turbine is now called Parsonsturbine.
Parsons was the first, in 1894 a ship driven by steam turbines, built the Turbinia. After many attempts they finally reached a speed of 34.5 knots, more than 4 knots faster than any other ship before, she was thus the fastest vessel of its time. With a bang he made known his ship in 1897, on a large fleet parade in honor of Queen Victoria in Spithead near Portsmouth. All ships that wanted to hunt and chase him, he hung it from effortlessly. The thing paid off for him, because the very next year he was commissioned to build a destroyer, which should be driven with its turbines, the HMS Viper. Then reached up to 36 knots, for this time an unimaginable speed. The Turbinia is now in a museum in Newcastle upon Tyne, England
Although his main interest was the development of steam turbines, he still found time to deal with various scientific and mechanical problems. In his later life he was known for his interest in the design of large telescopes. 1911 Parsons was knighted in 1927 and received the Order of Merit.
His Beerdigungsgottestdienst took place in Westminster Abbey on 3 March 1931.