OCTOBER 3, 1936 NATURE 567

The Parsons Steam Turbine

The Development of the Parsons Steam Turbine liners such as the Dreadrwught and M auretania.
Part 1 : Turbo-Generating Machinery ; Part 2 : The publication of this work has been followed by
Industrial Turbo-Machinery. By R. H. Parsons. numerous papers read to technical societies and
Pp. viii+420 +96 plates. (London: Constable and articles printed in technical journals, and now Mr.
Co., Ltd., 1936.) 42s. net. R. H. Parsons in this valuable volume on the
development of the Parsons steam turbine has
IT has often been remarked that the invention given a most able review of the history of the
and the development of the steam turbine have steam turbine as used in power stations, factories,
brought about a revolution in the generation of works and mines during the past half-century.
power both ashore and afloat. That revolution It is explained in the preface that the contents
was entirely unforeseen, and when Sir Charles of the book first appeared in a series of articles in
Parsons in 1884 took out his first patents and the Engineer in 1934 and 1935, and that these
constructed the historic little turbo-generator now articles described in chronological order most of
preserved in the Science Museum, South Kensing- the outstanding machines of their day. When they
ton, there were few who recognized the significance appeared, the articles were regarded as a notable
of the invention and none but Parsons himself addition to engineering history, and republished in
who dreamt of the changes it was destined to book form they will be much more readily accessible
bring about. The ideas involved were so novel, for study and reference.
the difficulties to be overcome so great and the About two-thirds of the book is devoted to turbo-
problems to be solved so numerous that it can generators. Beginning with the early machines,
now create no surprise that only the inventor Mr. Parsons deals in turn with radial flow
himself and one or two associated with him were turbines, parallel-flow turbines, single cylinder,
prepared to harness their fortunes to the turbine. two cylinder and tandem machines, and concludes
However, though its early years were very with post-War developments and representative
anxious ones, the turbine slowly gained a place modern designs. There are numerous photographs
for itself as a prime mover of singular adaptability, and line drawings, particulars of tests and much
and with the opening of the present century began interesting information on the design of the
that wonderful series of advances which has led various details of both turbines and generators.
to the steam turbine being without a rival for The story begins with the 7 kw. machine of 1884
driving large electric generators and for propelling and ends with the 50,000 kw. machines at Dunston
fast vessels. Parsons was thirty years old when and Chicago. Many of our finest power stations
he took out his first patents, and for the remaining have been erected in the last ten years and there-
forty-six years of his life, although he had many fore have but a short history, but there are others
other interests, he was associated with every fresh which have been supplied with turbines of various
advance and, as Sir Alfred Ewing said, was "the sizes over a period of thirty years. One of these is
active and incessant deus ex machina". Others, the Derby Power Station, and when describing the
too, made their contributions towards the progress 20,000 kw. turbo-generator supplied to this station
of the turbine, but Parsons was ever in the fore- in 1928, Mr. Parsons gives a table showing par-
front in all that concerned the design, manufacture, ticulars of twelve machines supplied between 1903
application and operation of turbine machinery. and 1928. This table is accompanied by curves
It was said in 1920, when he was awarded the illustrating the successive reduction in heat con-
Franklin Medal of the Franklin Institute of Phila- sumption and the improvement in thermal effi-
delphia, that "it is no exaggeration to say that ciency. The first machine at Derby, a 350 kw.
the work of Sir Charles Parsons has halved the direct current generator, had a heat consumption
cost of producing electric power and reduced in per kilowatt of more than 25,000 B.Th.U., while
still greater proportion the capital cost of generating the corresponding figure for the 1928 machine was
machinery". If that was true in 1920, it was still 11,710 B.Th.U.
truer in 1931 when he died. From the first, Sir Charles Parsons saw that the
The early history of the turbine was dealt with turbine could be applied to marine propulsion and
by the late Sir Alexander Richardson in his ex- to various industrial purposes. With the second
cellent work "The Evolution of the Parsons Steam of these, Mr. Parsons treats in the latter part of
Turbine", published in 1911, at which time the his book, where he describes and illustrates turbine-
finest turbines were to be found in battleships and driven pumps, blowers, compressors and the like.

© 1936 Nature Publishing Group

 568 NATURE OcTOBER 3, 1936
Seen as a whole, the history of the steam infancy, Parsons began life when machine tools,
turbine is a remarkable record of the result workshop processes and steam machinery had
of inventive ingenuity combined with scientific reached a high stage of development. The diffi-
investigation devoted to the solution of an culties Watt had to contend with were, in the
urgent, practical problem. To some extent it circumstances, greater even than those Parsons
has features in common with the history of the had to face, but the histories of their respective
Watt engine. But whereas Watt worked at a inventions will ever remain as monuments to
time when mechanical engineering was in its human genius.

Developments 1n Industrial Chemistry

(I) Sulfuric Acid Manufacture Considerable space is devoted to a thorough
By Andrew M. Fairlie. (American Chemical examination of the contact process, and the
Society Monograph Series, No. 69.) Pp. 669. (New principal types of plant are illustrated from de-
York : Reinhold Publishing Corporation ; Lon- scriptions of actual installations. The various
don : Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1936.) 4&: 3d. kinds of catalysts are set forth and their prepara-
net. tion given whenever this is known ; there is also
&. highly interesting discussion on the advantages
(2) Cours de chimie industrielle
Par Prof. G. Dupont. Tome 1: Generalites, les and disadvantages of platinum and vanadium
combustibles. Pp. vi +184. 35 francs. Tome 2: catalysts.
Les industries minerales. Pp. iv +337. 55 francs. Other sections deal with the concentration of
(Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1936.) sulphuric acid, the manufacture of oleum, hazards
and safety measures, the shipping of acid and a
(1) ALTHOUGH the United States has for system of cost accounting. The author also gives
many years been the chief sulphuric his opinion regarding the choice of process and the
acid-producing country in the world yet, curiously, trend of future developments in the industry.
its technical experts have, hitherto, omitted to The book is profusely illustrated with photo-
make any notable contribution to the standard graphs and diagrams, while a number of graphs
works dealing with the manufacture of this and tables make it even more valuable to those
commodity. The advent of this monograph not actually engaged in the manufacture of sulphuric
only repairs this omission but also gives a welcome acid.
insight into the recent developments which have (2) These volumes represent part of a course
taken place in America. given to students in the Faculty of Science at the
The author has not mtended to cover his subject University of Bordeaux, and in them the author
exhaustively but has confined himself to a thorough has aimed at providing a link between pure and
treatment of the present-day manufacture of applied chemistry by endeavouring to show how
sulphuric acid. Although the work deals principally the facts and theories of the former have been
with American practice, nevertheless full de- utilized industrially. Although such a course must
scriptions are given, and adequate tribute is paid, of necessity deal comparatively briefly with the
in those cases where European methods differ from, numerous industries described, yet Prof. Dupont
or have advanced further than, those in the United has succeeded in including most of the recent
States. Such differences are mainly to be found in developments. The work is thus admirably
those nitration prooesses which employ either the adapted to those embarking on a career either
more intensive and space-saving chambers. of the as technical chemists or chemical engineers,
Mills-Packard and Gaillard-Parrish types or use while it is also of value to anyone wishing to
towers instead of chambers. obtain a concise review of modern chemical
In describing both the nitration and contant manufacture.
processes, the author first deals in detail with each The first volume is divided into two sections,
step of the manufa,cture ; these steps are then the first of which deals with French company and
linked up 3Jl.d the working of the plant as a whole patent laws and the administration and planning
is discussed, together with the precautions to be of factories ; descriptions are also given of
observed when commencing operations, and the representative types of plant employed. The
control which is necessary in order to secure second part, which occupies about two thirds of
maximum efficiency. +.he book, is given over to a wonderfully concise

© 1936 Nature Publishing Group