[Sir] Charles Algernon Parsons

Life
1854-1931; engineer; younger son of third earl of Rosse; ed. TCD and St John’s Cambridge; 11th wrangler, 1877; constructed first turbo-dynamo, 1884; founded firm, 1889; raised voltage generated in power stations to ii,000 in 1905, and 36,000 in 1928; founded firm manufacturing marine steam turbines; experimental vessel Turbinia, naval review, 1897; turbine adopted by Cunard and Admiralty, 1905; besides modifying turbines for slower craft, interest in optics produced searchlight reflectors, different kinds of optical glass, and 36 and 74 inch reflecting telescopes; FRS, 189; President of British Association, 1919; KCB, 1911; OM, 1927; considered most original engineer since Watt. DNB DIB

Criticism
J. C. Kelly-Rogers, ‘Aviation in Ireland - 1784 to 1922’, Éire-Ireland, 6, 2 (Summer 1971), pp.3-17.

Notes
Portrait, Sir Charles Alg. Parsons [6th son of 3rd earl], eng., by A. Jamieson, lent Earl of Ross[e]; see Anne Crookshank, Irish Portraits Exhibition (Ulster Mus. 1965).

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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)