THE MOST spectacular sight at Queen Victoria鈥檚 Diamond Jubilee naval review in 1897 was an uninvited guest. As some 150 of the British navy鈥檚 most prestigious and powerful ships cruised off the south coast of England, a tiny boat appeared in the distance, flames leaping from its funnel. It raced past the imposing armada at around 40 miles per hour 鈥� faster than any vessel in service at the time.
The tiny steam boat was named Turbinia, and the secret of its success was a turbine engine, the first of its kind. Instead of relying on the pistons and crankshaft of a reciprocating engine to exploit its steam power, as steam engines had done for more than 100 years before, the Turbinia鈥檚 engine used the force of high pressure steam to turn rotors directly.
Daring debut
Navy bigwigs were impressed. They saw propellers spinning faster than ever before, and the boat鈥檚 sleek hull and uncluttered stern helped to make the most of the engine鈥檚 performance. Charles Parsons, the boat鈥檚 designer, was soon rewarded with orders for turbines, first for warships and later for fast passenger liners.
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Turbines shaped not just the future of shipping; their impact on electricity generation changed our lives. Reciprocating steam engines simply could not produce enough spinning power to deliver the smooth current necessary to make large-scale electricity grids feasible; by the early 1900s, turbines had made them a reality. So successful in fact was Parsons鈥� design that the turbine he displayed so mischievously almost a hundred years ago still survives, in more or less the same form, in generators that produce most of the world鈥檚 electricity.
Amazingly, the Turbinia has also survived, but only just. After a decade as a high-speed showpiece, it lay redundant on the River Tyne until 1926, when the Science Museum in London bid for its prime cut 鈥� the stern section with the novel turbine machinery. The leftovers went to the local museum, Newcastle鈥檚 Museum of Science and Engineering. It was then another 34 years before the vessel was once again pieced together, and put on display in a museum annex. By 1986, however, the annex had fallen into such disrepair that the museum decided to close it.
Now, in the year of the centenary of its launch, which was three years before its big splash at the naval review, the Turbinia is getting a new lease of life. This fragile 103-foot craft is being moved from its derelict annex to a permanent new home at the renamed Newcastle Discovery Museum in the city centre, about 3 kilometres away. There it will lie hidden under sheeting in the museum鈥檚 courtyard until a new roof can be constructed above it. The work should be completed by July 1995.
Graham Bradshaw, the museum鈥檚 curator, does not doubt that the restoration programme is worthwhile. 鈥淭he Turbinia as a ship is part of Tyneside myth and legend. The number of people who claim to have seen her, worked on her, is legion 鈥� it鈥檚 sort of a folk memory.鈥� With this ship as its jewel in the crown, the museum expects to see the number of visitors rise by about 50 per cent. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to be looking at 300 000 visitors a year, and drawing in people from a much wider radius,鈥� says Bradshaw. 鈥淭here鈥檚 rarely a week goes by when we don鈥檛 have an inquiry from somewhere in the world about the Turbinia.鈥� Letters come from every corner 鈥� a retired engineer from New Zealand who is keen to see it, an engineering society in Tokyo looking for technical details, someone in Connecticut who is making a model of the ship.
Besides its mould-breaking engine, Bradshaw describes the museum鈥檚 new acquisition as an intriguing 鈥渄ichotomy鈥� of ingenious hydrodynamic design and aerodynamically crude architecture. 鈥淵ou have a very sleek hull, hydrodynamically designed to cut through water at a rate of knots 鈥� and an elegant stern end, away from the propellers to give plenty of room for the propellers to work.鈥� But on top of this sits a structure not unlike a garden shed, he says. 鈥淚n parts it looks like it could have come off an allotment. Apart from the wheelhouse, which resembles something that might be stuck on top of a submarine, it鈥檚 not elegant.鈥�
A lost era
For Bradshaw, the Turbinia is a symbol of a lost era of science. Parsons embodied the typical Victorian 鈥渟tring-and-sealing-wax鈥� inventor, applying his astute mind to a diverse range of problems from steam turbines to the production of artificial diamonds (unsuccessfully) and outlandish children鈥檚 toys such as steam-powered flying machines and locomotives that would trundle round the garden pursued by Parsons鈥� family and barking dogs. 鈥淭here was a real Boy鈥檚 Own element to Parsons鈥� character,鈥� suggests Bradshaw. 鈥淵ou鈥檇 be hard pushed to come up with people living now who you can put into that sort of mould.鈥�
Although Parsons pioneered a wide range of technologies, the steam turbine was his greatest triumph. But the idea wasn鈥檛 new; Hero of Alexandria drew up some plans around 130 AD, though no one managed to build a working prototype. The difficulty was that the high-pressure steam needed to make the engine work efficiently made the single rotor spin far too fast. Parsons solved the problem by installing several rotors along the axial shaft in which the steam expanded to drive them. The steam鈥檚 energy was thus released in a series of small stages, instead of in one huge blast.
Bradshaw enthuses about the elegance of the breakthrough. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a very, very neat solution, which is basically still the same today. I know people talk about mathematical solutions being wonderfully symmetrical, almost artistic 鈥� I think Parsons came up with an artistic engineering solution.鈥�
The turbine was one chapter of the electrification story of the late 1800s, when over a period of only about 30 years, the world was transformed. In 1880, on opposite sides of the Atlantic, Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison independently invented electric lighting. Over the next few decades, the power outputs of Parsons鈥� turbine generators advanced quickly from the early 7 to 8 kilowatts (roughly the power consumed by three modern kettles) to the staggering 25 000- kilowatt generators built in 1912 to provide Chicago with electricity. Other cities followed. People were suddenly flicking light switches, and jumping on and off electric trams. They were no longer trapped in their homes on dark nights.
And it didn鈥檛 stop there. Before the age of passenger airlines, there were promising returns for anyone who could improve the efficiency and speed of transporting the growing numbers of passengers keen to make their way to the New World.
Only 10 years after the Turbinia鈥檚 debut, the gigantic turbine-powered Mauretania was in service, providing the fastest passage across the Atlantic for more than two decades. The force of these changes, Bradshaw says, is very hard for us to conceive. 鈥淚 suppose we鈥檝e witnessed an inner transition over recent years with the idea of communications technology, the superhighway.鈥� But this is invisible, he adds. 鈥淭he 19th-century changes were much more visible. Everything suddenly went bigger. Ships became bigger, power stations became bigger 鈥� it was that sort of change.鈥�
The final voyage of the Turbinia has called for some cunning navigation. The move was scheduled for this week, and the museum has been anxiously putting the final touches to the plans. Every detail presents a problem 鈥� negotiating junctions, roundabouts and even a central area of grassland where 200 cows graze. One of the biggest challenges may be manoeuvring the ship through the narrow entrance into the museum鈥檚 courtyard, with only inches to spare. But the organisers are confident of success. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e worked out there鈥檚 enough room 鈥� just,鈥� says Bradshaw. 鈥淲e鈥檙e all keeping our fingers crossed.鈥�