a
steam turbine introduced by
American inventor, Charles Gordon Curtis (1860-1953), widely used in electric
power plants and in
marine propulsion. A
turbine is a
machine that takes moving water,
wind or
steam and channels it onto blades mounted on an axle, causing the axle to
spin around often at high speed. This
motion is then transmitted through the axle to
drive other parts, machines, etc., such as for generating
electricity. In the
steam turbine,
steam at high temperatures and high
pressure rushes through the
turbine causing the
turbine blades to
spin. Some turbines have several stages in them, with the
steam expanding at each
stage and, each
time, doing further
work in turning the axle.