Charles Gordon Curtis
Charles Gordon Curtis (b. 20 April 1860 in Boston, died March 1953 in Central Islip, Suffolk County, New York) was an American engineer, inventor, and patent attorney. He is best known as the developer of the Curtis steam turbine
He went into partenrship with Charles Crocker and Schuyler S. Wheeler to form The Curtis, Crocker, Wheeler Co.
In 1896 Curtis patented two turbine concepts that led to the commercial production of a low-cost, single-cylinder turbine to produce electricity. He combined the principles of the de Laval turbine and the Parsons turbine into a multi-stage impulse turbine (similar to the independently developed Rateau turbine). In 1901 he sold the rights to his patent to General Electric Co (USA).
The Curtis vertical steam turbine enabled the electric power supply system to grow at an unprecedented rate during the first two decades of the 20th century.
The first Curtis vertical turbine was constructed by the General Electric Co. for the Newport & Fall River Street Railway Co. It operated in the Newport, R.I., generating station until June 1927. It was transferred to the Harding Street Station of the Indianapolis Power & Light Co. for display and later moved to the company's E.W. Stout Station.
The Curtis turbine was developed by the International Marine Curtis Turbine Company for use as a marine propulsion, which in turn licensed it to the John Brown and Co, who built the Brown-Curtis turbine used in many ships in the Royal Navy.
In 1899 Curtis developed the first functioning gas turbine in the United States. He also worked on improvements to internal combustion engines (on two-stroke diesel engines) and on the drive of torpedoes.
The above is condensed from the Wikipedia entry.
Note: Curtis's use of successive rows of impulse blading was anticipated to some extent by James Pilbrow, who in 1843 obtained British Patent No. 9658 for an impulse steam turbine with contra-rotating bladed wheels. It is unlikely that this was developed by him for practical use.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ASME [1]