Gas Turbine Handbook : Principles and Practices

Evolution of the Gas Turbine 1
Chapter 1
Evolution of the Gas Turbine
T
hrough the design experience developed for steam turbines
and available to gas turbines, it is not surprising that gas
generator compressors, turbines, and power-extraction
turbines bear a striking resemblance to each other and to the steam
turbine. Nor should it be surprising that the axial flow compressors
of today’s gas turbines resemble the reaction steam turbine with
the flow direction reversed. While many people today recognize the
similarities between steam and gas turbine components, most do not
fully appreciate the common history these two products share. History
tells us that the idea for the gas turbine and the steam turbine
were conceived simultaneously. As early as 1791, John Barber’s patent
for the steam turbine described other fluids or gases as potential
energy sources. “John Barber invented what may be considered a
gas turbine in which gas was produced from heated coal, mixed with
air, compressed and then burnt. This produced a high speed jet that
impinged on radial blades on a turbine wheel rim.” 1 John Barber’s
ideas, as well as those before him (Giovanni Branca’s impulse steam
turbine—1629, Leonardo da Vinci’s “smoke mill”—1550, and Hero of
Alexandria’s reaction steam turbine—130 BC) 2 were just ideas. Even
though the gas turbines described by these early visionaries would
today be more accurately termed ‘turboexpanders’ (the source of compressed
air or gas being a by-product of a separate process), there is
no evidence that any of these ideas were ever turned into working
hardware until the late 19th Century.
For the next 90 years ideas abounded, but all attempts to produce
working hardware were unsuccessful. As Norman Davy stated in
1914, “The theory of the gas turbine was as fully grasped by Barber
at the end of the eighteenth century, and by Bresson in the beginning
of the nineteenth century, as it is by experts today. The success of the
gas turbine as a heat engine rest solely upon practical limitations.” 3
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