index to Blue plaques
| Links
| Contacts
Sir Charles Parsons F.R.S.
- Sir Charles Parsons FRS ( 1854 - 1931 )
- Location: in the main entrance to the Turbinia Gallery of the
Newcastle-upon-Tyne Museum of Discovery
- Unveiled: 20 March 1997 by Sir Arnold Wolfendale
(Immediate Past-President of the IOP) IOP Branch North Eastern
Parsons, a physicist and engineer, was President of the Institute from
1923-25. His father was an astronomer and maker of outstanding telescopes,
and eventually became President of the Royal Society. After studying in
Dublin and Cambridge, Parsons undertook an apprenticeship in engineering,
and throughout his life, he continued to combine his knowledge of theory and
practice, in the tradition of Kelvin and Watt, to produce original work in
the fields of power generation and marine propulsion. He designed and
patented a multistage, high- pressure steam turbine for use in the firm
where he worked, and by the end of the nineteenth century, had set up his
own company to make turbo-generators, especially for use in marine power. He
displayed his 48 m craft, Turbinia, at the 1897 naval celebrations
of Victoria's jubilee, where its capacity to travel at over 34 knots so
impressed the Navy that HMS Dreadnought was fitted with his
turbines. Later on in the early years of the twentieth century, Cunard used
the turbines in their liners. Later work included the construction of
searchlights, also for use by the Navy, and large telescopes, following in
the footsteps of his father.
Page last updated 6 November 2012