‘The Turbine Plant on the Major Ocean Going Liners including Titanic’ by Geoff Horsman
25th October 2022 @ 2:00 pm - 4:15 pm
This is a free 1/2 day event starting a 14:00 at which Geoff Horsman will give two talks that outline the development and history of turbines, with particular reference to the work of Parsons. This talk will be in the afternoon while the other will be in the evening.
There will also be an opportunity from 12 noon to 1.45pm to examine Parson’s No 4 Turbine which is held by Kelham Island Museum. Turbine No 1 is understood to have been the prototype, while Turbine No 4 is almost certainly the first production model.
Also see The Evolution of the Parsons Land Steam Turbine (the second talk)
The Programme for the day (both talks) is as follows:
12:00 pm to 1:45 pm Tea and coffee and an opportunity to view the Parsons turbine that is held by Kelham.
2:00 pm Welcome and a brief outline as to how Kelham became home to Parsons first-ever turbine-generator supplied to a customer for commercial operation.
2:15 pm A History of Parsons and Pametrada Marine Turbines in the Great Liners
This talk will outline the evolution of Parsons and Pametrada’s most powerful marine steam turbines from the Mauretania and Lusitania via the Titanic, Aquitania, Île de France, Empress of Britain, Bremen, Europa, Queen Mary and Windsor Castle to the QE2. The creation of Pametrada which produced the engine designs for Britain’s most prominent shipyards to build – including John Brown, Harland and Wolff, Cammell Laird, Vickers Armstrong, Swan Hunters, etc – will also be described. There will be insights into passenger life onboard the ships as well as the engines.
4:15 pm Break
5:30 pm Film “Makers of Power”
6:00 pm The Evolution of the Parsons Land Steam Turbine
This talk will describe how the turbines produced for power station use changed from the World’s first turbine-generator of 1884 up until the time Parsons became part of Siemens in 1997. The keynote designs will be discussed including the machines for Calder Hall (the World’s first commercial nuclear power station), Drax (Britain’s largest power station), and Nanticoke (the largest coal-fired power station in North America). Reference will be made to the Kelham Island turbine generator in this talk.
8:00 pm Closing Remarks