How A Victorian Era Engine Made Spaceflight Possible... Let's Look At A 125 Year Old Turbine!
17,310While on vacation in Scotland I found a steam turbine built at the end of the 19th century, this was at the heart of the first commercial vessel propelled by a steam turbine, the TS King Edward. It served for decades in the sea around where I grew up on the Ayrshire coast. I was fascinated to see this as an adult understanding its importance in technological development for the first time.
And of course since I like to talk about spaceflight I wanted to draw a few links between this and the technology in rockets used today.
Many of the diagrams come from this 1911 book on the early evolution of the technology, if you're interested then this should be your first stop
https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Evolution_of_the_Parsons_Steam_Turbi/DAUfAAAAMAAJ?hl=en
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