The Honourable Sir Charles Algernon Parsons, OM, KCB, FRS (13 June 1854 – 11 February 1931) was an Anglo-Irish engineer, best known for his invention of the compound steam turbine, and as the namesake of C. A. Parsons and Company.
Sir Charles Algernon Parsons, the British engineer was born into an Anglo-Irish family in London as the youngest son of the famous astronomer William Parsons. With his three brothers, Parsons was educated at home in Ireland by private tutors all of whom were well versed in the sciences and also acted as practical assistants to the Earl in his astronomical work. Parsons then read mathematics at Trinity College, Dublin and at St. John’s College, Cambridge, graduating from the latter in 1877 with a first-class honours degree He joined the Newcastle-based engineering firm of W.G. Armstrong as an apprentice, an unusual step for the son of an earl. Later he moved to Kitsons in Leeds, where he worked on rocket-powered torpedoes. In 1889, after working for several other companies, he established his own works at Newcastle for the manufacture of steam turbines, dynamos, and other electrical apparatus.
The turbine Parsons invented in 1884 utilized several stages in series; in each stage the expansion of the steam was restricted to the extent that allowed the greatest extraction of kinetic energy without causing the turbine blades to overspeed. Parsons’ turbine was fitted with a condenser in 1891 for use in electric generating stations, and in 1897 it was successfully applied to marine propulsion in the “Turbinia,” a ship that attained a speed of 34 1/2 knots, extraordinary for the time. The turbine was soon used by warships and other steamers.
In addition to the chairmanship of C.A. Parsons and Company, Parsons held directorial positions on the boards of several other electrical supply and engineering companies. He was made a fellow of the Royal Society (1898), was awarded the Royal Society’s Rumford Medal (1902), and was president of the Institute of Marine Engineers (1905–06) . He was knighted in 1911 and given the Order of Merit in 1927.
In addition to his turbine, Parsons invented a mechanical reducing gear, which, when placed between the turbine and a screw propeller, greatly improved the efficiency of both. He also invented non-skid automobile chains. A collection of his scientific papers and addresses was published in 1934.