History of the Turbine Engine
The
history of the turbine engine first began with John
Barber who patented the first gas turbine. The purpose
of his turbine was to burn a gas which would then be
compressed along with air, and then the mixture would be
pumped into the combustion chamber to be ignited. Water
was then supposed to be injected into the chamber which
would produce steam. The issue with his patent was that
it was unable to compress the air and gas significantly
to produce useful work.
ASME - The World's First Industrial Gas Turbine Set
The
next major milestone for the turbine happened in 1939
(at this point turbines have been made effectively
since 1910) when the Brown Boveri Company made the
first gas turbine for power generation. The turbine,
located in Neuchatel, Switzerland, had a power output
of 4 MW at generator terminals and an efficiency of
17.4%. The turbine rotated at 3000 rpm and created
15.4 MW of power but the compressor absorbed 11.4 MW
of power. As word spread of their success, many power
companies began to build similar industrial gas
turbines and improvements were made.
Important Historical Events
|
1791 |
First Gas Turbine Patent, John Barber, England |
|
1900/1904 |
First trials of Stolze Hot Air Turbine |
|
1905 |
Holzwarth
Explosion
Turbine Concept |
|
1906/1908 |
First
“Explosion” Type built by BBC for Dr. Holzwarth
|
|
1933
|
First BBC Holzwarth turbine goes into operation with blast furnace gas fuel |
|
1937 |
First “Houdry” Gas Turbine compressor set and generating 2000 KW goes into operation at Marcus Hook Refïnery, PA, USA. |
|
1939 |
First 4000 KW Neuchatel simple cycle gas turbine goes into operation |