Gas Turbine History

Gas Turbine
History
1971
“John Barber invented what may be considered a gas turbine in which gas was produced from heated coal, mixed with air, compressed and then burnt. This produced a high speed jet that impinged on radial blades on a turbine wheel rim.”1

• In 1808 John Dumball envisioned a multi-stage turbine. Unfortunately his idea consisted only of moving blades without stationary airfoils to turn the flow into each succeeding stage. Had he realized the need for a stationary stage between each rotating stage he would have originated the concept of an axial flow turbine.
• In Paris in 1837, Bresson’s idea was to use a fan to drive pressurized air into a combustion chamber. Here, the air was mixed with fuel gas and burnt. These combustion products were cooled by the addition of more air, and this final product was used to drive turbine blades.1,2
• In 1850, in England, Fernimough suggested a mixed steam and gas turbine, in which air was blown through a coal grate while water was sprayed into the hot gases. The gas and steam mixture then acted to drive a two-bladed rotor. • Not until 1872 did Dr. Franz Stolze combine the ideas of Barber and Dumball to develop the fi rst axial compressor driven by an axial turbine. Due to a lack of funds; he did not build his machine until 1900. Dr. Stolze’s design consisted of a multi-stage axial flow compressor, a single combustion chamber, a multistage
axial turbine, and a regenerator utilizing exhaust gases to heat the compressor discharge air. This unit was tested between 1900 and 1904, but never ran successfully.

TECHNICAL IMPROVEMENTS

The growth of the gas turbine in recent years has been brought about most significantly by three factors:
• metallurgical advances that have made possible the employment of high temperatures in the combustor and turbine components,
• the cumulative background of aerodynamic and thermodynamic knowledge, and
• the utilization of computer technology in the design and simulation of turbine airfoils and combustor and turbine blade cooling configurations.

Table 1-1. Chronology of the Gas Turbine Development
Date Name Invention
130BC Hero of Alexandria Reaction Steam Turbine
1550 Leonardo da Vinci, Italy Smoke Mill
1629 Giovanni Branca, Italy Impulse Steam Turbine
1791 John Barber, England Steam Turbine and Gas Turbine
1831 William Avery, USA Steam Turbine
1837 M. Bresson Steam Turbine
1850 Fernimough, England Gas Turbine
1872 Dr. Stolze, Germany Gas Turbine
1884 Charles A. Parsons Reaction Steam Turbine & Gas Turbine
1888 Charles G.P. de Laval Impulse Steam Turbine Branca type
1894 Armengaud+Lemale, Gas Turbine France
1895 George Westinghouse Steam Turbine Rights
1896 A.C. Rateau, France Multi Impulse Steam Turbine
1896 Charles Curtis Velocity Compound Steam Turbine/Gas Turbine
1895 Dr. Zoelly, Switzerland Multi Impulse Steam Turbine
1900 F. Stolze, Germany Axial Compressor & Turbine Gas Turbine
1901 Charles Lemale Gas Turbine
1902 Stanford A. Moss, USA Turbo-Charger/Gas Turbine
1903 A. Elling Gas Turbine
1903 Armengaud+Lemale Gas Turbine
1905 Brown Boveri Gas Turbine
1908 Karavodine Gas Turbine with deLaval Steam Turbine
1908 Holzwarth Gas Turbine with Curtis + Rateau Compressor
1930 Frank Whittle, England Aero Gas Turbine (Jet Engine)
1938 Brown Boveri—Neuchatel, 1st Commercial Axial Switzerland Compressor & Turbine