The Washington herald., 1915-02-04
HISTORY BUILDERS.
The Man Who Perfected the Turbine
Wheel.
ny DIR. e. J. EDWARDS.

George Westinghouse was the CEN
trail figure of a group of distinguished
men of science who stood in front of
the stupendous wheel pits which con-
stituted a part of the plant which was
In course OF construction on the banks
of the Niagara River in 1891. This
plant. 1t was expected. would gem
crate very great electric energy by
converting some part of the energy
that is in the Niagara current into
electricity through the medium of the
turbine wheel
All that Mr.. Westinghouse at that
predicted has since then been fulfilled.
He was especially interested in the
gigantic turbine wheels which had
been installed at the bottom of the
wheel pit, each one of which was ca
pable of generation the equivalent Of
5000 horsepower, electric energy be-
ing the apparatus which made the
conversion Of the waterpower into cleo
trio power possible.
Mr.. Westinghouse drew me a little
to one side of the group and then
said that he regarded the perfecting
of the turbine as one of the most i'm
portant of the agencies in the develop
ment of American industry. Il don't
know of anything more romantic or
interesting than the story of the de-
velopment OF the turbine" Mr.. West
tinghouse said. 1T was the work Of
an American and he was practically
seIf-instructed. 1t was Boyden. a
Massachusetts, lad, who a long time
ago showed how the turbine could so
be improved as to make IL possible to
utilize practically all of the energies
which are in waterpower.
IF an apparatus could be invented
which would make 1t possible to cap
ture and utilize substantially all OF
the energy which is in coal the in
dustries of the world would be revO-
lutionIzed and no man could picture
to himself what an inconceivably
great advantage to the material in
terests of the world an apparatus OF
that kind would be.
81 am much interested in turbines.
not only from a business point Of
view, but from that of science. Just
think Of II! If we did not have the
perfected turbine we could not build
such an electric plant as we are now
constructing at Niagara Falls. The old
fashioned water wheel did not utilize
much over 80 per cent of the energy
of waterpower. Some of the wheels
did better than others. Boyden was,
1 think, asked by the people who un-
dertook to develop the waterpower OF
the Merrimac River where now stand
he cities of Lowell and of Lawrence
il he could make a better water wheel
than any then in use. The best wheels
at that time would not yield more than
35 or 40 per cent of the power that
was in the waterfalls. A Frenchman
had a little earlier invented a turbine
wheel. 1t was something Of an ad-
vance upon the old form OF wheel,
but not much. Boyden spent a good
while studying that turbine and at
last made up his mind that he could
SO improve il as to make II capture
practically all of the energy that Is
in the waterfalls.
They thought he was promising too
much, but he did improve the turbine
so that he was able to demonstrate
that IL captured about sc per cent of
the power that is in the waterfalls.
That demonstration made the develop
ment of the manufacturing industry
at Lowell and at Lawrence inevitable.
But for Boyden's improvement not
much manufacturing would have been
done there. There are going to he
other improvements, especially in the
utilization of the energy that is In
steam, by turbines, but after all Boy
denis invention will stand supreme and
to it may be attributed much of the
growth of the manufacturing industry
of the United States in those parts of
the country where waterpower is plen-
tiful."
(CopyTight, 1915. BY Z. ]. Edwards. All rights re-
seTedD
Tomorrow Or. Edwards will tell of
The First American Maker of Pat
ent Leather"