Sir Charles Algernon Parsons
| Sir Charles Algernon Parsons | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | 13 June 1854 London, England, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland |
| Died |
11 February 1931 (aged 76) Kingston Harbour, Jamaica, |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater |
Trinity College, Dublin St. John's College, Cambridge |
| Known for | Steam turbine |
| Spouse(s) | Katharine Bethell (m. 1883) (d. 1933) |
| Children | Rachel Mary Parsons (1885–1956) Algernon George Parsons (b. 1886–1918) |
| Awards |
Rumford Medal (1902) Albert Medal (1911) Franklin Medal (1920) Faraday Medal (1923) Copley Medal (1928) Bessemer Gold Medal (1929) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Engineering |
| Institutions | Heaton, Newcastle |
Sir Charles Algernon Parsons, OM, KCB, FRS (13 June 1854 – 11 February 1931), the son of a member of the Irish peerage, was an Anglo-Irish engineer, best known for his invention of the compound 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.
Parsons was born in London into an Anglo-Irish family, youngest son of the famous astronomer William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse. The family seat is Birr Castle, County Offaly, Ireland, and the town of Birr was called Parsonstown, after the family, from 1620 to 1899.
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, like John Purser. One of them later became, as Sir Robert Ball, Astronomer Royal for Ireland. Parsons then read mathematics at Trinity College, Dublin and 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; then moved to Kitsons in Leeds where he worked on rocket-powered torpedoes; and then in 1884 moved to Clarke, Chapman and Co., ship engine manufacturers near Newcastle, where he was head of their electrical equipment development. He developed a turbine engine there in 1884 and immediately utilized the new engine to drive an electrical generator, which he also designed. Parsons' steam turbine made cheap and plentiful electricity possible and revolutionised marine transport and naval warfare.
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