Charles Algernon Parsons

Sir Charles Algernon Parsons, O.M. (June 13, 1854 – February 11, 1931) was a British engineer, best known for his invention of the steam turbine. He worked as an engineer on dynamo and turbine design, and power generation, with great influence on the naval and electrical engineering fields. He also developed optical equipment, for searchlights and telescopes.

Born at 13 Connaught Place, Hyde Park, London on June 13,1854, he was the youngest son of the famous Irish astronomer Lord Rosse and photographic pioneer Mary Fields Rosse, and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and St. John's College, Cambridge. After completing college, he joined the Newcastle-based engineering firm of W.G. Armstrong as an apprentice, an unusual step for the son of a peer. He later moved to Kitsons in Yorkshire where he worked on rocket powered torpedoes.

In 1889, he founded C. A. Parsons and Company in Newcastle Upon Tyne to produce steam turbines to his design.[1] He later founded the Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company, also in Newcastle, and became famous when in June 1897 his turbine powered yacht, Turbinia, was sailed at speed through the Diamond Jubilee Royal Navy fleet review off Portsmouth, to demonstrate the great potential of the new technology. Today, Turbinia is housed in a purpose-built gallery at the Discovery Museum, Newcastle.

He was knighted in 1911, and made a member of the Order of Merit in 1927.

He won the Rumford Medal in 1902.

Birr Castle, in County Offaly, houses a museum detailing the contribution the Parsons family have made to the fields of Science and Engineering. Part of the museum is given over to marine engineering work of Charles Parsons.

C.A. Parsons survives in the Heaton area of Newcastle and is now part of Siemens, a German conglomerate. Sometimes referred to as Siemens Parsons, the company recently completed a major redevelopment programme, reducing the size of its site by around three quarters and installing the latest manufacturing technology.

The Parsons Building in Trinity College, Dublin, which houses the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, is named in his honour.[1] On 28 September 2006, the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Noel Dempsey TD, announced the Charles Parsons Awards which provide funding for research groups engaged in energy research in Ireland.[2]
Contents
[hide]

* 1 See also
* 2 References
* 3 Published Works Online
* 4 External links

[edit] See also

* Contemporaries of Parsons at St. John's College, Cambridge: Kikuchi Dairoku; Donald MacAlister
* List of people on stamps of Ireland
* Grubb Parsons

[edit] References

1. ^ Chronology of Charles Parsons. Birr Castle Demesne.

[edit] Published Works Online

* E-book: "The Steam Turbine and Other Inventions of Sir Charles Parsons"
* Synthetic HPHT Diamond by Sir Charls Parsons

[edit] External links

* Birr Castle, ancestral home
* Profile of Charles Parsons
* Profile at Cambridge University
* Parsons and Turbinia
* Sir Charles Parsons Symposium, excerpts from Transactions of the Newcomen Society