How turbines used to be built 3

[ScottyUK]

I wasn't sure whether to post this in the Engineering History thread, but I think this is probably the right place for it.


I was sent a couple of links to a fascinating documentary film made over fifty years ago about the great C.A. Parsons & Co works in Heaton, Newcastle near where I grew up. This plant was the birthplace of the steam turbine, and bears the name of the man who invented it. Today the works is but a ghost of its former self, in German ownership and now stripped of the name of its founder, with a workforce now numbering in the hundreds instead of the tens of thousands.

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=81597

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=81598

Hope you find it interesting.


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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!

 

[byrdj]

Thanks.....
I really enjoy seeing how the great engineers devolped this industry

but as far as how they are made, looks nearly the same as what I've seen. except fadoras were not an approved head protection

 

[MikeHalloran]

I'll have to make a note of it and come back; AT&T is being more flaky than usual tonight.

I got a kick out of coverage of "Turbinia" on PBS a while back.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[rmw]

I also had trouble with the steaming, but could read the text and get the gist. Quite impressive. That was what one had to do to be the Bill Gates / Steve Jobs of their day.

Just today I was looking at an old GE Schenectady brochure produced just about 40 years ago when their shops were full of huge LSTG and generator rotors and casings.

I was in those shops frequently during that era and it was something to behold. I haven't been to Schenectady in many years but I am told that it is a shell of its former self.

rmw

 

[MikeHalloran]

GE is also a shell of its former self.


Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[rmw]

Its stock price certainly is.

rmw

 

[ccfowler]

ScottyUK,

Many thanks!!!

 

[thruthefence]

thanks for this link. To bad BMC couldn't keep theor act together.