Abstract
THE Christmas issue of the Heaton Works Journal, which deals with the activities of Messrs. C. A. Parsons and Co., Ltd., contains an article on early turbo-driven fans. In 1894, when Sir Charles commenced his experiments on turbo-driven centrifugal pumps, he constructed the first turbo-driven fan. This was to the order of Ramage and Ferguson, Ltd., of Leith, who fitted it on board the S.Y. Speedy for supplying forced draught to the boilers. The unit was a very small one, the turbine developing about 3 h.p. at a speed of 4,000 r.p.m. The fan was of the screw propeller type, but no particulars of its duty or its dimensions are to be found among the records at Heaton Works. In the following year Sir Charles took out a patent, No. 3024, covering “Improvements in Stationary and Portable Pumps Actuated by Steam Turbines”. The first part of this patent deals with turbo-driven centrifugal pumps, while the latter part is devoted to turbo-driven fans. The first of the figures given shows a modification of his invention in which he applies the turbine directly to a screw fan for forced draught, or ventilating purposes. One of the steam turbines is directly coupled to the fan shaft upon which the screw fan is fixed. It revolved at a speed of 2,000-3,000 revolutions per minute, gave a pressure of 12-22 in. of water and delivered 5,000-7,000 cu. ft. of air per minute. Simultaneously the second turbo-driven fan was constructed for the lead works of Messrs. Cookson and Sons at Howdon-on-Tyne. Like the first fan, it was required for forced draught purposes. The turbine developed 60 h.p. at 3,000 r.p.m. and operated with steam at 80 lb. pressure. The fan, which was 36 inches in diameter and directly coupled to the turbine shaft, delivered 60,000 cu. ft. of hot lead gases per minute at a pressure of 5 in. of water when running at 3,000 r.p.m. The plant was run for nearly seven years day and night (Sundays included) in hot lead fumes, at a temperature of nearly 500° F. and was only stopped twice a year, to allow of the flues being cleaned out.
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Sir Charles Parsons and Turbo-driven Fans. Nature 149, 106 (1942). https://doi.org/10.1038/149106b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/149106b0