What I like about these videos is that they embody the “clear and vivid” form of science communication described by Alan Alda. Few added frills, just let the thing be cool by its own merit and clearly explain the thing you’re passionate about.
@@engineerguyvideo You're very good at it too! Your videos are easily half to one tenth the length of some other science and engineering channels, yet you explain more things and far more clearly than many of them, and still include a great deal of the "wow" factor about your subjects.
This is the best. I hate when people pad with frills, as if the subject matter itself is boring and needs enhancement. If that is the case, then you are a fool that is merely entertained by frills and actually don't care about the subject matter. This also has the habit of injecting people with no real interest in the subject and diluting it, all in the name of 'inclusion.' It is such a stupid concept of tolerance; we shouldn't tolerant morons who drive the quality down just because they want to be entertained I got into physics and math because the subject itself interested me from a young age; I needed no frills. I have some peers, that perform quite poorly, that say "This was all boring to me until [insert populizer here] made it interesting. It is beyond pathetic; how can the subject itself be boring to these people, yet they still want to go into it? Makes no sense. These people can be made to like anything just by adding frills. And their performance quality is oft times extremely low
@@pyropulseIXXI dude, you are being too harsh. Understand that you may have the privilege to see things that go over other peoples heads. Consider yourself lucky, why do you put people down like that?
@@aldomaresca9994 I am not putting anyone down; I tutor math and physics and will help anyone that asks for help. I encourage them to learn, and to learn on their own so they aren't beholden to external factors such as "my professor sucks; that is why I failed!" No; you failed because you didn't put the effort in to properly learn. Education is one of the only fields where people can straight up fail and then blame it on everyone else but themselves. People that need a 'good teacher' so they can learn and 'see the magic' are delusional. The quality of a teacher means nothing to me, since I learn on my own, and learning on your own is always superior by orders of magnitude. By getting people to learn on their own, I am helping them out immensely. I've had peers tell me numerous times that I teach better tahna the teacher. I teach/tutor by getting the student to re-frame how their mind works, vs just putting a path for them to follow. Once they re-frame their mind, they make their own path and can learn at an incredibly increased rate, and learn at a much higher accuracy I am merely speaking factual here; there is a real difference between people that are actually interested in a subject vs those that are only superficially interested in a subject. If someone is not interested in a subject until 'frills' are added, then they aren't interested in the subject at all. They are a mindless drone Me identifying them as a 'mindless drone' is not putting them down; it is merely a factual statement. Unlike you, I do not harbor any negative emotional reactions to 'mindless drones.' If that is how a person is, that is how they are; I do not dislike them for it; I will still hang out with them and enjoy the time; I will still help them
Your video about the design of aluminum cans is what inspired in me the love for engineering that eventually turned into a career - thank you! This new series of videos perfectly captures so many ideas that I've never seen described directly, and it's filled with interesting examples. I'm so glad that you're still making these videos.
These videos should be shown to all students, and the book read by all 1st semester engineering students, I certainly would have known more of what I was getting myself into. I hope you continue this channel after the promotional videos for your book, your work is concise, well researched understandable by laymen and trained alike, a true feat of engineering.
I do plan to continue. This week I am cleaning up the studio from the "debris" from this series -- all those things in the videos -- and backing up the video. Backingup up takes (astonishingly to me) about a week: it all goes onto LTO5 tape and its 4K video .. and then back into the studio to create some more videos.
I was wondering how Parsons determined how to size the rotors. When you revealed the diligent work of Regnault my jaw dropped! What an amazing resource for an engineer. Thank you for this informative series and book.
I remember when I was a wee lad in middle school when I first saw your video on the genius behind aluminum can designs. Never thought I'd imagine someday I would eventually join the giants, but here I am finally a professional engineer, 3 years in the industry. Some flames just needed a bit of spark. And that middle schooled spark was all thanks to you, engineerguy.
I think that was the first of his videos I had come across, probably about six years ago. I immediately binge-watched all his other videos, and am busy binge-watching his four new ones now. The aluminum can video remains my favorite.
In 1971 at age 16 I went to Marine Engineer College in South Shields, England to learn how ships worked. We learned about reciprocating engine, took many examples apart (taken from scrapped ships) and learned how to put them back together and set up the slide valves. That was fun - but it was only when we started on turbine theory did a light bulb go on for me. I grasped the impulse-reaction principle straight away and was hooked on turbines. As a senior engineer I worked on VLCC tankers with steam turbine plants and high pressure boilers - they had excellent precision control but were very fuel hungry. At 26,000 SHP at full speed, I needed to put 240 tonnes of heavy fuel into the boilers every day. Turbines gave way to diesels - no way near as neat or as controllable , but they only burned 90 tonnes of fuel a day for about the same output power - a no brainer if you are paying the costs. I am glad that I had my time standing between the turbines as they spooled up to full sea speed. This was an experience that all engineers should have at least once. Now you only see turbines in nuclear or power plants , the steam turbine has largely vanished from the Marine world. If you ever get the chance to visit Newcastle on Tyne in UK, there is an excellent museum dedicated to Turbinia, the development of reaction turbines and the life and work of one of Britain's greatest engineers - Charlie Parsons.
Don't forget about jet turbines! I'm sure I don't need to mention that to you, but I did find it interesting how similar steam turbines and jet engines are. Especially since they also include the stationary sets of blades.
I have made a post Army career being a steam turbine generator engineer for a large generation company. I travel to many many site to do detailed inspections. I'm constantly blown away by the vast amount of refinement over the past 150 years that got us to the modern rotor design. The new stuff ia great but my favorite plants are the ones built in the 60s and 70s. They are examples of what slide rule design can do. The mechanical hydraulic controls are far and away my favorite.
4:55: It seems to me that the plastic model turbine is shown back to front. The curved blades should increase in angle as the steam passes through the disc, and so on for the following discs. Think of each blade as an aerofoil. Apart from that, thank you, from one Bill to another, for your video.
Ok, I wasn't the only one to notice. At 5:55, the flow rate would induce a rotation in the direction opposite than that shown. The diagram at 7:00 is correct. As someone who has used the NIST steam tables extensively, I had no knowledge of the history of their role in the success of the first steam turbine. Thank you for this video and the many others like it. I-L-L
@@joebottini1743 Are you sure the 7:00 is correct? In a similar comment someone posted this diagram: 2.bp.blogspot.com/-5C9XoY0Wz4w/XAJEG72iqLI/AAAAAAAABgY/35JzUdIzUTYnjWzzXvC2A2qITmfdmrn_ACLcBGAs/s1600/reaction%2Bturbine%2Bpressure%2Bvelocity%2Bdiagram.png which makes much more intuitive sense to me.
Steam turbines are my bread and butter. The coolest thing is that they are so well-balanced, you can spin a 330,000# LP rotor by hand, once you put oil to it in the bearing. They're great.
At a GE 'large apparatus' shop near Boston, I got to see a commercial plant rotor suspended up on roller bearings while they balanced it. They only spin it a few RPM, but watching those six foot blades whiz by, even at that slow speed, was a bit scary.
I’ve been working in thermal power plants for over 30 years. The well balance statement is even more fascinating by the fact that these turbines, as big as they are, vibrate so little. Most bearings will vibrate about .5 to 2 mils. Considering a mil is 1 thousands of an inch, or .0254 mm.
The anecdote you closed your book with, you and your father watching the activity of a factory one more time, made me tear up a bit. What a wonderful and bittersweet moment.
As someone fascinated by philosophy of science your lucid analysis of the engineering method vs the scientific method was absolutely delightful. Thank you for your work!
Earlier today, I visited the "Glasgow Transport Museum" which houses the original exposed turbine from the World's first Commercial Steam Turbine Ship - The TS King Edward - The predecessor to many of the magnificent turbine liners of the 20th century such as the RMS Queen Mary or SS United States, and I was thinking to myself: I only wish I knew EXACTLY how this thing works. Well thank you for saving the day! A magnificent and simply yet thorough explanation.
I have taken my grandchildren to the Discovery Museum Newcastle many times to see the Turbinia. The thing that always strikes mel is the fact that the turbine drove the propeller so fast that the water ate its way through the bronze it was made from. Parsons had to redesign the propeller to something very similar to those we use to this day. Engineers just keep engineering!
Mr. Hammack, these videos are nothing short of phenomenal. Your clear and detailed, yet concise delivery is beyond comparison. Thank you so very much for these videos.
The stories regarding the absolute stupidity of the Royal Navy's top brass are worthy of a whole RUclips series. They really got things wrong to a remarkable degree of reliability.
Charles Prson's original Turbinia is on display at the Museum of Science and Technology in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, as are examples of his turbine engines. Also, at the CA Parsons Heaton works, just outside Newcastle, you could occasionally see large turbine rotors being placed inside a huge steel tank where they were spun up for testing and balancing.
I have a degree in science and I technically work in science and I’ve always had the utmost respect for engineers. For every physical principle i’ve ever studied, there are engineers building incredibly complex machines or structures to put it into practice. I’m constantly in awe of the work of an engineer, they literally carry the modern world on their backs
The quality doesn't disappoint. Always enjoy showing how Engineering is often the fusion of existing technologies / ideas as opposed to the creation of the new, where the fusion ends up being greater than the sum of its parts. Glad to have your content back in my feed again!
Nice to see more of your content. Welcome back to engineering content creation! I am now 70 and spent my life as a professional engineer, albeit in IT. However I went to school in Newcastle UK , and visited the Science Museum there a few times in my teen years and was fascinated by the Turbinia. There is now a dedicated exhibit hall for the ship. Parsons was one of two great Victorian Tyneside Engineers. The other was Armstrong who is now more famous for creating a UK Arms Industrustry based on heavy breech loading rifled naval guns, but he made his initial fortune developing hydraulic machinery for dockside loading and unloading.
The Turbinia is in a museum near where I live (Discovery Museum, Newcastle, UK), I've been to see it a few times over the years and it still gives an aura of effortless speed; it's like seeing a thoroughtbred locked in a stable.
In the part of the video showing the steam flow inside the 30 layers of fans, you show the steam going from the exhaust to the intake, instead of from the intake to the exhaust. The blades are supposed to act like wings and redirect the airflow, instead of acting like walls to slow down the steam airflow (or steam-flow).
The sad truth is that most positions at universities give very little time to prepare for lectures, both regarding the topic itself and the teaching method, as the priority is paper-focused research, grant applications and consulting.
😮My advanced degrees in engineering physics were earned more than half a century ago, and those that have commended this series of videos are correct in saying that they are excellent introductions to the topics covered. And Dan, you are to be commended for your honesty in revealing the shocking lapse in the presentation to you, of one of the foundations of the practical applications of advanced thermodynamics at the turn of the last century. It points up the importance of a firm grounding in history, science and engineering for all students of those topics. RUclips presenters of these topics are providing a valuable resource that is even more important considering the absence of such studies in today's science and engineering institutions.
@@SeriousPigi wtf are you talking about? I taught myself everything I know, with going to lecture and getting a degree being a mere formality. I honestly cannot stand people that get lead around by the establishment. The problem with modern academia is the 'publish or die' mindset. Recent meta analysis show up to 40% of published studies are fake.. yes, FAKE; the medical field was up to 23% of published papers are fake; that is an insane figure (they said, via 'analysis,' it wasn't more than 2%, but actual studies on the matter show much, MUCH higher figures IN ALL FIELDS). The modern form of academic peer review is doing more harm to science than good. But this doesn't mean you shirk your responsibilities of teaching yourself stuff, and blaming the system for your inability to learn basic stuff is incredibly egregious
@@randolphlee4586 He should be teaching himself this. He is pursing a graduate degree, and you are talking as if he still needs his hand held and should be told what to learn as if he is a 5 year old. I am pursing a PhD in theoretical physics, and 95% of all my learning came from myself, with the pursuit of a degree and attending lecture being a mere formality. Despite this, I have also taught myself two languages, various musical instruments to expert level (guitar and piano), and I have major-level knowledge in biology, chemistry, philosophy, history, anthropology, and various other humanities, as well as linguistics. In fact, I can often talk beyond people that have degrees in these fields, despite only having a physics degree. People just make excuses; furthermore, people pretend that them being 'hyper-specialized' somehow excuses them being utterly ignorant of other fields and subjects. It does not excuse you. Field integration is far more important than this era of 'hyper-specialization.' You can still be specialized whilst having a working and professional level knowledge of multiple other fields, but people are just too pathetic and think being a 'renaissance man' is out of reach in modern times. IT ISN'T
Always fascinated by all the various 'heat engines'. The Navy ship I served on, we used turbines that had two-wheel Curtis stage, followed by several Rateau stages (what we called 'velocity and pressure compounded'). Those turbines were extremely rugged and needed very little maintenance. Great video.
Amazing video. Having learned turbomachinery design in school, I was blown away by the way you made it so simple to understand. And it's also amazing to learn how Parsons managed to build such a complicated machine way back then. Thank you so much for this channel, Bill, and keep illuminating the world with wisdom!
This video contains the most understandable depiction of the working parts of both a piston steam engine and a steam turbine that I have ever seen. Well done, Bill, and it's great to have you posting new videos!
What a fantastic video and beautifully explained process. I live near Newcastle upon Tyne. The Turbinia is held as an exhibit at the Newcastle Discovery museum. I have spent so many hours with my kids visiting this museum.. Now my youngest is 21 and an engineer himself, it builds a picture. To add to this, the museum also has exhibits of William George Armstrong's many achievements , whom, like Parsons was an industrial titan of the 19c. Sadly, Newcastle is not the industrial powerhouse it once was, but we are all very proud of our history. Let's not forget Joseph Swan.. another name among many and for any American readers, I will let you look up what he did.
6:50 damn, that's very close in principle as jet turbine (with the stator and rotator bit), my man just discovered a precursor to jet turbine in the 1800s
This is the best explanation of a turbine I've seen yet, and the first time I've ever really understood it. Most of the time I've seen something like "blow on a fan with a straw and you've got a turbine" but I could tell there was more to it.
Thorough loss of joy and happiness has been a massive problem going into my 30's (37 now), so it means a lot when I say that I genuinely got a little excited to see a new upload here. 🙂
What??? In 6:05, the turbine rotates in the right direction alright, but the direction of the steam comes-in from the wrong side. You need a stator stage at the opposite end and the steam needs to enter from there. Your flow vectors don't add up for a turbine, but basically defines a compressor running in the false direction.
i had the honour of serving my engineering apprentice years working at CA Parsons, Newcastle, working on the huge low pressure end of the turbines, setting the blades, it maybe worth noting that in another devision of the huge factory {Grub Parsons },was also built, huge optical telescopes, one being the Anglo/Ausralian telescope in Siding Spring Observatory, Australia, the largest telescope in the southern hemisphere, in which i also had a small part in its construction, as an apprentice, I worked on building some of the bearing castings, ( I slyly cast my initials, TAC, inside some of the bearing casings, ( my only claim to fame ) ,, cheers
And we still use them today: they can be found in every nuclear power plant (be that on land generating electricity for the grid or at sea powering submarines and aircraft carriers).
You're back! I missed your videos and am so happy to see you returning to teach on RUclips more. Thank you for all the effort you put in to these videos, they are always enlightening and soothing to listen to.
I am somewhat worried early in the video that you point at the reversing linkage for the valves whilst stating that this linkage converts reciprocating motion to rotary. The crank pin on the flywheel is where this occurs
There is actually no air in the turbine, only steam, as air would result in a loss of efficiency, because of it is much less energy dense and has a much poorer heat transfer characteristics. Most turbine setups are multistage, so there are 2 or more turbines, with the exhaust of one connected to the inelt of the next. The last stages of the last turbine are actually at a pressure lower than atmosphere, and a well designed turbine setup will reach near vacuum by the final stage. This is because the condenser (what turns the steam back into water) immediately follows the low pressure turbine, and is kept at near vacuum to minimize the energy loss in condensing the steam. The fundimental principles of the turbine are much the same as wings in aeronautical engineering, and a jet engine is in essence a steam turbine, but with combustion happening inside, but as air is the working fluid, the efficiency of a Brayton cycle (gas turbine or jet) engine is very low (by itself). The benefit of gas turbines is their excellent power to weight (or volume) ratio and relative ease of operation, so that is why they are largely relegated to aircraft, warships and short term, high demand power generation (which uses the heat of the exhaust to boil water, which powers a turbogenerator, so the thermal efficiency of the entire system is actually quite good).
@@nomad8723 Steam or air, the depicted flow is still reversed. Look at the fins on each stage: they're oriented for right-to-left flow, but the flow is depicted as left-to-right. I noticed this when he was spinning the model, too: he was spinning it backwards.
Incredible video explained in such detail, yet simple enough for non engineering or scientific minds to comprehend. I never had this device explained so clearly and simply. I was lucky enough to grow up close to the Parsons home in Birr, Co. Offaly, Ireland,, where the one of the original turbines is on display, in the tour of this magnificent castle & gardens.
Very educational video, my brain thanks you. I was going to say that at 5:55 the steam is going the wrong way, but I see that people have beaten me to that comment. So instead I will say that I think you should re-work your video and reverse the steam flow, it is a critical mistake and will confuse people who don't already understand this topic.
I've been looking forward to this episode since you announced the new series, turbines are just so damn cool and we're the first thing that got me really interested in engineering. Stators are such a simple yet incredibly impactful addition, what every good engineering solution strives to be.
Outstanding explanation. I finally understand the naval steam turbine revolution that was adopted widely in the early 20th century. And Winston Churchill saw the light early.
Thanks for sharing this ... The publisher has asked I send them any correction necessary before the paperback edition ... so if they your colleagues saw an errors please forward them to me!
My only regret watching these videos is that I binge them back to back and then have to wait half a decade for another new upload. Someone in some network please pick this man up for a show contract, we need an engineering Kurzgesagt
This is simply the greatest video that's ever created by human. It has great story, great narration, it's based on true story and you can learn something from it.
I'd always wondered about the very things you finally described. I had no sense of the power steam had. I didn't understand why rotors sizes varied. A fascination which began when I was in 3rd grade. Thank you.
This is the first video that's been recommended to me (although being subscribed [but without receiving notifications]) since you started back up and I'm so excited you're back educating the world after your break!
Great explanation of turbines. It gives the right knowledge without the never ending mathematical explanations we all had to endure in school. Thank you Anthony
Nice job Engineerguy. Retired power plant operator here. Lord knows I've had to explain this sort of thing over and over again. I really hope that those weren't Parson's actual books. I'd really hate to think that they would allow anyone to actually touch them for the sake of a RUclips video. They are holy things. Let them abide. :)
Your clear videos are definitely a boon to posterity, bringing to vivid life the way things work and almost more importantly how we got there. As a trained physicist become engineer on a steam project, I find your closing statement of the engineering method intriguing - my college’s engineering school appended “applied science” onto their name :) Clive Cussler wrote a novel about the steam-turbine ships and dreadnoughts, and included Turbinia; it’s in his Isaac Bell series I think it’s called “The Spy”
great video, I am just writing my master thesis about designing turbine blades. The only thing that is missing in my opinion is to mention of Gustaf de Laval with his impulse turbine design
This is a fantastic look at how an engineering breakthrough can echo down through the ages into things we use today that we take for granted. I cannot imagine how much he toiled to create this modern marvel.
Interesting the way things came together for something really new. James Watt would have understood the thermodynamics, but he didn't have the metallurgy or machining technique that made Parsons' work possible. A few years ago I visited the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. They noted that their original systems ran off reciprocating steam engines and were inefficient because of the gearing to spin alternators fast enough. Steam turbines changed things completely.
Pick a topic that is exceedingly tedious or boring or incredibly complex and Bill Hammack can wade through the subject and create a presentation that is perfectly clear and concise. Honestly if this fellow was one of my college instructors this 70 year old guy would still be in school!
In my younger years I was an engineer in the Navy working in the Boiler room. We also had to know what was going on in the engine room as well. I'm very familiar with turbines. My first ship was in overhaul and the yard workers removed the top cover from the turbines. Nothing like seeing it for yourself gives one a better understanding of how it works.
What I like about these videos is that they embody the “clear and vivid” form of science communication described by Alan Alda. Few added frills, just let the thing be cool by its own merit and clearly explain the thing you’re passionate about.
That's exactly what I am aiming for ... and I have a lot of respect for the Alan Alda Science Communication Center and their approach.
@@engineerguyvideo You're very good at it too! Your videos are easily half to one tenth the length of some other science and engineering channels, yet you explain more things and far more clearly than many of them, and still include a great deal of the "wow" factor about your subjects.
This is the best. I hate when people pad with frills, as if the subject matter itself is boring and needs enhancement. If that is the case, then you are a fool that is merely entertained by frills and actually don't care about the subject matter.
This also has the habit of injecting people with no real interest in the subject and diluting it, all in the name of 'inclusion.' It is such a stupid concept of tolerance; we shouldn't tolerant morons who drive the quality down just because they want to be entertained
I got into physics and math because the subject itself interested me from a young age; I needed no frills. I have some peers, that perform quite poorly, that say "This was all boring to me until [insert populizer here] made it interesting. It is beyond pathetic; how can the subject itself be boring to these people, yet they still want to go into it? Makes no sense. These people can be made to like anything just by adding frills. And their performance quality is oft times extremely low
@@pyropulseIXXI dude, you are being too harsh. Understand that you may have the privilege to see things that go over other peoples heads. Consider yourself lucky, why do you put people down like that?
@@aldomaresca9994 I am not putting anyone down; I tutor math and physics and will help anyone that asks for help. I encourage them to learn, and to learn on their own so they aren't beholden to external factors such as "my professor sucks; that is why I failed!" No; you failed because you didn't put the effort in to properly learn.
Education is one of the only fields where people can straight up fail and then blame it on everyone else but themselves.
People that need a 'good teacher' so they can learn and 'see the magic' are delusional. The quality of a teacher means nothing to me, since I learn on my own, and learning on your own is always superior by orders of magnitude.
By getting people to learn on their own, I am helping them out immensely. I've had peers tell me numerous times that I teach better tahna the teacher.
I teach/tutor by getting the student to re-frame how their mind works, vs just putting a path for them to follow. Once they re-frame their mind, they make their own path and can learn at an incredibly increased rate, and learn at a much higher accuracy
I am merely speaking factual here; there is a real difference between people that are actually interested in a subject vs those that are only superficially interested in a subject.
If someone is not interested in a subject until 'frills' are added, then they aren't interested in the subject at all. They are a mindless drone
Me identifying them as a 'mindless drone' is not putting them down; it is merely a factual statement. Unlike you, I do not harbor any negative emotional reactions to 'mindless drones.' If that is how a person is, that is how they are; I do not dislike them for it; I will still hang out with them and enjoy the time; I will still help them
This video is a gift to society! I’m so excited watching this !!!
Amazing video! It's sad that Tesla turbine is not mentioned here!
Your video about the design of aluminum cans is what inspired in me the love for engineering that eventually turned into a career - thank you! This new series of videos perfectly captures so many ideas that I've never seen described directly, and it's filled with interesting examples. I'm so glad that you're still making these videos.
The chosen one has returned.
Cringe
@@Daz912 talking from experience?
Welcome back
Man, it’s been years!
@@Daz912Cringe²
These videos should be shown to all students, and the book read by all 1st semester engineering students, I certainly would have known more of what I was getting myself into. I hope you continue this channel after the promotional videos for your book, your work is concise, well researched understandable by laymen and trained alike, a true feat of engineering.
I do plan to continue. This week I am cleaning up the studio from the "debris" from this series -- all those things in the videos -- and backing up the video. Backingup up takes (astonishingly to me) about a week: it all goes onto LTO5 tape and its 4K video .. and then back into the studio to create some more videos.
What’s the book?
I was wondering how Parsons determined how to size the rotors. When you revealed the diligent work of Regnault my jaw dropped! What an amazing resource for an engineer. Thank you for this informative series and book.
Every once in a while, the universe smiles on us and the Engineering Guy delivers a new video. 😊
Well done, we missed you!
I remember when I was a wee lad in middle school when I first saw your video on the genius behind aluminum can designs. Never thought I'd imagine someday I would eventually join the giants, but here I am finally a professional engineer, 3 years in the industry. Some flames just needed a bit of spark. And that middle schooled spark was all thanks to you, engineerguy.
I think that was the first of his videos I had come across, probably about six years ago. I immediately binge-watched all his other videos, and am busy binge-watching his four new ones now. The aluminum can video remains my favorite.
In 1971 at age 16 I went to Marine Engineer College in South Shields, England to learn how ships worked. We learned about reciprocating engine, took many examples apart (taken from scrapped ships) and learned how to put them back together and set up the slide valves. That was fun - but it was only when we started on turbine theory did a light bulb go on for me. I grasped the impulse-reaction principle straight away and was hooked on turbines. As a senior engineer I worked on VLCC tankers with steam turbine plants and high pressure boilers - they had excellent precision control but were very fuel hungry. At 26,000 SHP at full speed, I needed to put 240 tonnes of heavy fuel into the boilers every day. Turbines gave way to diesels - no way near as neat or as controllable , but they only burned 90 tonnes of fuel a day for about the same output power - a no brainer if you are paying the costs. I am glad that I had my time standing between the turbines as they spooled up to full sea speed. This was an experience that all engineers should have at least once. Now you only see turbines in nuclear or power plants , the steam turbine has largely vanished from the Marine world. If you ever get the chance to visit Newcastle on Tyne in UK, there is an excellent museum dedicated to Turbinia, the development of reaction turbines and the life and work of one of Britain's greatest engineers - Charlie Parsons.
Don't forget about jet turbines! I'm sure I don't need to mention that to you, but I did find it interesting how similar steam turbines and jet engines are. Especially since they also include the stationary sets of blades.
I have made a post Army career being a steam turbine generator engineer for a large generation company. I travel to many many site to do detailed inspections. I'm constantly blown away by the vast amount of refinement over the past 150 years that got us to the modern rotor design.
The new stuff ia great but my favorite plants are the ones built in the 60s and 70s. They are examples of what slide rule design can do. The mechanical hydraulic controls are far and away my favorite.
4:55: It seems to me that the plastic model turbine is shown back to front. The curved blades should increase in angle as the steam passes through the disc, and so on for the following discs. Think of each blade as an aerofoil. Apart from that, thank you, from one Bill to another, for your video.
I hate this kind of errors … sorry for this …
Ok, I wasn't the only one to notice. At 5:55, the flow rate would induce a rotation in the direction opposite than that shown. The diagram at 7:00 is correct.
As someone who has used the NIST steam tables extensively, I had no knowledge of the history of their role in the success of the first steam turbine. Thank you for this video and the many others like it. I-L-L
Indeed I flipped the turbine
@@joebottini1743 Are you sure the 7:00 is correct? In a similar comment someone posted this diagram: 2.bp.blogspot.com/-5C9XoY0Wz4w/XAJEG72iqLI/AAAAAAAABgY/35JzUdIzUTYnjWzzXvC2A2qITmfdmrn_ACLcBGAs/s1600/reaction%2Bturbine%2Bpressure%2Bvelocity%2Bdiagram.png which makes much more intuitive sense to me.
I was wondering why the blades seemed to curve in the other direction
Steam turbines are my bread and butter. The coolest thing is that they are so well-balanced, you can spin a 330,000# LP rotor by hand, once you put oil to it in the bearing. They're great.
At a GE 'large apparatus' shop near Boston, I got to see a commercial plant rotor suspended up on roller bearings while they balanced it. They only spin it a few RPM, but watching those six foot blades whiz by, even at that slow speed, was a bit scary.
I’ve been working in thermal power plants for over 30 years. The well balance statement is even more fascinating by the fact that these turbines, as big as they are, vibrate so little. Most bearings will vibrate about .5 to 2 mils. Considering a mil is 1 thousands of an inch, or .0254 mm.
hmm many turbs use air bearings
@@manxman8008he does have a point.
I work on gas turbine powerplants used in airplanes. They’re exactly the same in principle in action, just using a different fluid.
The anecdote you closed your book with, you and your father watching the activity of a factory one more time, made me tear up a bit. What a wonderful and bittersweet moment.
As someone fascinated by philosophy of science your lucid analysis of the engineering method vs the scientific method was absolutely delightful. Thank you for your work!
This series is a true masterpiece, awesome job!
Bill's channel was the first channel i subscribed too. RUclips gold.
Mine too. No other channel can compare to the quality of his erudite exposition.
Earlier today, I visited the "Glasgow Transport Museum" which houses the original exposed turbine from the World's first Commercial Steam Turbine Ship - The TS King Edward - The predecessor to many of the magnificent turbine liners of the 20th century such as the RMS Queen Mary or SS United States, and I was thinking to myself: I only wish I knew EXACTLY how this thing works.
Well thank you for saving the day! A magnificent and simply yet thorough explanation.
It's like a beautiful story, easy for even me to understand. Well done.
I have taken my grandchildren to the Discovery Museum Newcastle many times to see the Turbinia. The thing that always strikes mel is the fact that the turbine drove the propeller so fast that the water ate its way through the bronze it was made from. Parsons had to redesign the propeller to something very similar to those we use to this day. Engineers just keep engineering!
When he showed the volumes, and revealed that they represented 30 years of dedicated study... wow.
Mr. Hammack, these videos are nothing short of phenomenal. Your clear and detailed, yet concise delivery is beyond comparison. Thank you so very much for these videos.
The stories regarding the absolute stupidity of the Royal Navy's top brass are worthy of a whole RUclips series. They really got things wrong to a remarkable degree of reliability.
Keep them coming Bill, love your work and welcome back.
Charles Prson's original Turbinia is on display at the Museum of Science and Technology in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, as are examples of his turbine engines. Also, at the CA Parsons Heaton works, just outside Newcastle, you could occasionally see large turbine rotors being placed inside a huge steel tank where they were spun up for testing and balancing.
I can make a sound argument that those who most respect scientists are engineers and those who most respect engineers are scientists.
I have a degree in science and I technically work in science and I’ve always had the utmost respect for engineers. For every physical principle i’ve ever studied, there are engineers building incredibly complex machines or structures to put it into practice. I’m constantly in awe of the work of an engineer, they literally carry the modern world on their backs
It is amazing how modern turbines are basically the same design as Parson's. Great video.
It is always an amazing day when we get a new video from the Engineer Guy! This should become mandatory viewing for ANYONE working with turbines.
Welcome back!!! So glad you're back in my feed.
The quality doesn't disappoint. Always enjoy showing how Engineering is often the fusion of existing technologies / ideas as opposed to the creation of the new, where the fusion ends up being greater than the sum of its parts. Glad to have your content back in my feed again!
I love how this channel goes years with no posts and then there's a post EVERY DAY for like a week! I'm on an engineering binge!
well ... its not intentional to be gone for a few years ... that's not the goal!
@@engineerguyvideo Having kids will do that to you!
Love to see you making content again!
Nice to see more of your content. Welcome back to engineering content creation! I am now 70 and spent my life as a professional engineer, albeit in IT. However I went to school in Newcastle UK , and visited the Science Museum there a few times in my teen years and was fascinated by the Turbinia. There is now a dedicated exhibit hall for the ship. Parsons was one of two great Victorian Tyneside Engineers. The other was Armstrong who is now more famous for creating a UK Arms Industrustry based on heavy breech loading rifled naval guns, but he made his initial fortune developing hydraulic machinery for dockside loading and unloading.
So glad to see Engineerguy return to making videos.
I know you took a break for whatever reason, but please carry on with your wonderful explanations.
The world would be a poorer place without you.
The Turbinia is in a museum near where I live (Discovery Museum, Newcastle, UK), I've been to see it a few times over the years and it still gives an aura of effortless speed; it's like seeing a thoroughtbred locked in a stable.
In the part of the video showing the steam flow inside the 30 layers of fans, you show the steam going from the exhaust to the intake, instead of from the intake to the exhaust. The blades are supposed to act like wings and redirect the airflow, instead of acting like walls to slow down the steam airflow (or steam-flow).
There is a revised version in the playlist version that corrects this.
As someone working on a graduate degree in Thermal Fluid systems, I had never heard of Parsons. Thanks for telling his story
The sad truth is that most positions at universities give very little time to prepare for lectures, both regarding the topic itself and the teaching method, as the priority is paper-focused research, grant applications and consulting.
😮My advanced degrees in engineering physics were earned more than half a century ago, and those that have commended this series of videos are correct in saying that they are excellent introductions to the topics covered. And Dan, you are to be commended for your honesty in revealing the shocking lapse in the presentation to you, of one of the foundations of the practical applications of advanced thermodynamics at the turn of the last century. It points up the importance of a firm grounding in history, science and engineering for all students of those topics. RUclips presenters of these topics are providing a valuable resource that is even more important considering the absence of such studies in today's science and engineering institutions.
I'm working on a graduate degree in theoretical physics
@@SeriousPigi wtf are you talking about? I taught myself everything I know, with going to lecture and getting a degree being a mere formality. I honestly cannot stand people that get lead around by the establishment.
The problem with modern academia is the 'publish or die' mindset. Recent meta analysis show up to 40% of published studies are fake.. yes, FAKE; the medical field was up to 23% of published papers are fake; that is an insane figure (they said, via 'analysis,' it wasn't more than 2%, but actual studies on the matter show much, MUCH higher figures IN ALL FIELDS). The modern form of academic peer review is doing more harm to science than good.
But this doesn't mean you shirk your responsibilities of teaching yourself stuff, and blaming the system for your inability to learn basic stuff is incredibly egregious
@@randolphlee4586 He should be teaching himself this. He is pursing a graduate degree, and you are talking as if he still needs his hand held and should be told what to learn as if he is a 5 year old.
I am pursing a PhD in theoretical physics, and 95% of all my learning came from myself, with the pursuit of a degree and attending lecture being a mere formality.
Despite this, I have also taught myself two languages, various musical instruments to expert level (guitar and piano), and I have major-level knowledge in biology, chemistry, philosophy, history, anthropology, and various other humanities, as well as linguistics. In fact, I can often talk beyond people that have degrees in these fields, despite only having a physics degree.
People just make excuses; furthermore, people pretend that them being 'hyper-specialized' somehow excuses them being utterly ignorant of other fields and subjects. It does not excuse you. Field integration is far more important than this era of 'hyper-specialization.' You can still be specialized whilst having a working and professional level knowledge of multiple other fields, but people are just too pathetic and think being a 'renaissance man' is out of reach in modern times. IT ISN'T
Never underestimate the power of a demonstration.
I'm so glad I can watch your videos again, as interesting and clever as ever. They truly are a gem. Thank you very much.
Always fascinated by all the various 'heat engines'. The Navy ship I served on, we used turbines that had two-wheel Curtis stage, followed by several Rateau stages (what we called 'velocity and pressure compounded'). Those turbines were extremely rugged and needed very little maintenance. Great video.
Amazing video. Having learned turbomachinery design in school, I was blown away by the way you made it so simple to understand. And it's also amazing to learn how Parsons managed to build such a complicated machine way back then.
Thank you so much for this channel, Bill, and keep illuminating the world with wisdom!
As a builder of extreme low head hydro turbines, I wonder how many prototypes he constructed to learn what did not work well.
I love how first the idea is crude and rudimentary.
Then with future innovations, the technology gets smaller and much more efficient.
This video contains the most understandable depiction of the working parts of both a piston steam engine and a steam turbine that I have ever seen. Well done, Bill, and it's great to have you posting new videos!
I am so happy he's back. This is the only missing RUclips person I have truly missed. The professor I wish I'd had in school. Welcome back!!
Thank you for such kind words!
What a fantastic video and beautifully explained process. I live near Newcastle upon Tyne. The Turbinia is held as an exhibit at the Newcastle Discovery museum. I have spent so many hours with my kids visiting this museum.. Now my youngest is 21 and an engineer himself, it builds a picture. To add to this, the museum also has exhibits of William George Armstrong's many achievements , whom, like Parsons was an industrial titan of the 19c. Sadly, Newcastle is not the industrial powerhouse it once was, but we are all very proud of our history. Let's not forget Joseph Swan.. another name among many and for any American readers, I will let you look up what he did.
Good to see Swan And Edison partnered up instead of trying to beat each other up in the courts or insane public events like killing elephants.
Thanks, Mr. Parsons I've had a lot of fun and rewarding time fixing turbines over my 40 years as a union millwright.
i've been loving your recent return, please keep this up
6:50 damn, that's very close in principle as jet turbine (with the stator and rotator bit), my man just discovered a precursor to jet turbine in the 1800s
Biggest W of 2023 is engineerguy's return ❤
Great video. One quible - At the 6 min mark, you have the steam traveling in the wrong direction.
So I have heard!
I've always wanted a crash course on how steam turbines worked but never got around to looking at the details. This is fantastic!
Check out the airplane jet engine, it's very similar. Amazing.
This is the best explanation of a turbine I've seen yet, and the first time I've ever really understood it. Most of the time I've seen something like "blow on a fan with a straw and you've got a turbine" but I could tell there was more to it.
Absolutely fantastic video. Wonderful to have you back, Bill.
Thorough loss of joy and happiness has been a massive problem going into my 30's (37 now), so it means a lot when I say that I genuinely got a little excited to see a new upload here. 🙂
It is too bad not as many people know about parsons as know about the Kardashians.
I don't think I can quite express how beautiful it is to hear your voice and cadence describing feats of engineering again.
I feel at home! Comfy engineering videos. Thank you for continuing with these.
This was a great and very enlightening video
What??? In 6:05, the turbine rotates in the right direction alright, but the direction of the steam comes-in from the wrong side. You need a stator stage at the opposite end and the steam needs to enter from there. Your flow vectors don't add up for a turbine, but basically defines a compressor running in the false direction.
These videos are understood and appreciated by a broad spectrum of individuals. The mastery of communicating at this level is demonstrated by a few.
Thank for sharing your magnificent knowledge! I really missed those videos
i had the honour of serving my engineering apprentice years working at CA Parsons, Newcastle, working on the huge low pressure end of the turbines, setting the blades, it maybe worth noting that in another devision of the huge factory {Grub Parsons },was also built, huge optical telescopes, one being the Anglo/Ausralian telescope in Siding Spring Observatory, Australia, the largest telescope in the southern hemisphere, in which i also had a small part in its construction, as an apprentice, I worked on building some of the bearing castings, ( I slyly cast my initials, TAC, inside some of the bearing casings, ( my only claim to fame ) ,, cheers
Another great video! Saw your talk at UPenn last month and enjoyed that too. Keep up the great work!
Three cheers for Mr Parsons, and what a classy, concise and accurate description - bravo engineer guy.
And we still use them today: they can be found in every nuclear power plant (be that on land generating electricity for the grid or at sea powering submarines and aircraft carriers).
I'm so glad that Bill is back. As a mechanical engineer, I love this channel!
HE'S BACK! WOO HOO!
You're back! I missed your videos and am so happy to see you returning to teach on RUclips more. Thank you for all the effort you put in to these videos, they are always enlightening and soothing to listen to.
Welcome back
I am somewhat worried early in the video that you point at the reversing linkage for the valves whilst stating that this linkage converts reciprocating motion to rotary. The crank pin on the flywheel is where this occurs
I love these videos, and it's killing me that the air flow is backwards in the turbine!
There is actually no air in the turbine, only steam, as air would result in a loss of efficiency, because of it is much less energy dense and has a much poorer heat transfer characteristics. Most turbine setups are multistage, so there are 2 or more turbines, with the exhaust of one connected to the inelt of the next. The last stages of the last turbine are actually at a pressure lower than atmosphere, and a well designed turbine setup will reach near vacuum by the final stage. This is because the condenser (what turns the steam back into water) immediately follows the low pressure turbine, and is kept at near vacuum to minimize the energy loss in condensing the steam. The fundimental principles of the turbine are much the same as wings in aeronautical engineering, and a jet engine is in essence a steam turbine, but with combustion happening inside, but as air is the working fluid, the efficiency of a Brayton cycle (gas turbine or jet) engine is very low (by itself). The benefit of gas turbines is their excellent power to weight (or volume) ratio and relative ease of operation, so that is why they are largely relegated to aircraft, warships and short term, high demand power generation (which uses the heat of the exhaust to boil water, which powers a turbogenerator, so the thermal efficiency of the entire system is actually quite good).
@@nomad8723 Steam or air, the depicted flow is still reversed. Look at the fins on each stage: they're oriented for right-to-left flow, but the flow is depicted as left-to-right. I noticed this when he was spinning the model, too: he was spinning it backwards.
@@nomad8723 Doesn't matter, the illustrations seems to show reverse airflow than what the turbine blades are designed for.
Air hits the convex sides in this sort of turbine. These things aren't just fans run backwards!
@@christianweagle6253 Why would it not be the concave side like literally every other turbine?
Incredible video explained in such detail, yet simple enough for non engineering or scientific minds to comprehend. I never had this device explained so clearly and simply. I was lucky enough to grow up close to the Parsons home in Birr, Co. Offaly, Ireland,, where the one of the original turbines is on display, in the tour of this magnificent castle & gardens.
first
Welcome
Very educational video, my brain thanks you. I was going to say that at 5:55 the steam is going the wrong way, but I see that people have beaten me to that comment. So instead I will say that I think you should re-work your video and reverse the steam flow, it is a critical mistake and will confuse people who don't already understand this topic.
A voice for radio! Clear and concise without the usual head banging noise called music
Clearest and best description of the principles of a turbine and the role of the stationary blades I have ever heard. Thank you!
I've been looking forward to this episode since you announced the new series, turbines are just so damn cool and we're the first thing that got me really interested in engineering. Stators are such a simple yet incredibly impactful addition, what every good engineering solution strives to be.
I am about to start my first job out of college as a turbine engineer, this is amazing work! Great concise explanation
I steamed a Cruiser, 4 1200 psi Boulers at 975d F! and to hear the machinery speed up and slow down during speed chages is facinating!
Outstanding explanation. I finally understand the naval steam turbine revolution that was adopted widely in the early 20th century. And Winston Churchill saw the light early.
Glad to see you are posting RUclips videos again. Several folks in my book club have read and thoroughly enjoyed your book "The things we make."
Thanks for sharing this ... The publisher has asked I send them any correction necessary before the paperback edition ... so if they your colleagues saw an errors please forward them to me!
My only regret watching these videos is that I binge them back to back and then have to wait half a decade for another new upload.
Someone in some network please pick this man up for a show contract, we need an engineering Kurzgesagt
This is simply the greatest video that's ever created by human. It has great story, great narration, it's based on true story and you can learn something from it.
I am a simple man, I see engineering guy and I like it. Awesome channel, no matter the activity.
I'd always wondered about the very things you finally described. I had no sense of the power steam had.
I didn't understand why rotors sizes varied. A fascination which began when I was in 3rd grade. Thank you.
Fanstastic! I wish I had such inspiring conceptual presentations during my engineering studies. Puts this field into a wholistic perspective.
This is the first video that's been recommended to me (although being subscribed [but without receiving notifications]) since you started back up and I'm so excited you're back educating the world after your break!
Great explanation of turbines. It gives the right knowledge without the never ending mathematical explanations we all had to endure in school.
Thank you
Anthony
I always liked the story of the Turbinia crashing the Jubilee. It really was a world-changing invention.
Nice job Engineerguy. Retired power plant operator here. Lord knows I've had to explain this sort of thing over and over again. I really hope that those weren't Parson's actual books. I'd really hate to think that they would allow anyone to actually touch them for the sake of a RUclips video. They are holy things. Let them abide. :)
They were Regnault’a original books!
Your clear videos are definitely a boon to posterity, bringing to vivid life the way things work and almost more importantly how we got there. As a trained physicist become engineer on a steam project, I find your closing statement of the engineering method intriguing - my college’s engineering school appended “applied science” onto their name :)
Clive Cussler wrote a novel about the steam-turbine ships and dreadnoughts, and included Turbinia; it’s in his Isaac Bell series I think it’s called “The Spy”
great video, I am just writing my master thesis about designing turbine blades. The only thing that is missing in my opinion is to mention of Gustaf de Laval with his impulse turbine design
I considered that ... Laval's turbine is fascinating.
This is a fantastic look at how an engineering breakthrough can echo down through the ages into things we use today that we take for granted. I cannot imagine how much he toiled to create this modern marvel.
Interesting the way things came together for something really new. James Watt would have understood the thermodynamics, but he didn't have the metallurgy or machining technique that made Parsons' work possible.
A few years ago I visited the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. They noted that their original systems ran off reciprocating steam engines and were inefficient because of the gearing to spin alternators fast enough. Steam turbines changed things completely.
I feel like I haven't seen videos from you in a while. I'm so glad to be seeing them now. Really great stuff. Thank you.
Pick a topic that is exceedingly tedious or boring or incredibly complex and Bill Hammack can wade through the subject and create a presentation that is perfectly clear and concise. Honestly if this fellow was one of my college instructors this 70 year old guy would still be in school!
In my younger years I was an engineer in the Navy working in the Boiler room. We also had to know what was going on in the engine room as well. I'm very familiar with turbines. My first ship was in overhaul and the yard workers removed the top cover from the turbines. Nothing like seeing it for yourself gives one a better understanding of how it works.
Amazing! A treasure! I wish I would have watched you when I was 14...a period of life when I was so crazy with engines, turbines, and electronics!
Those cut aways were helpful for me and loved how you combined both rotation methods in the turbine, thanks very interesting.
Thank you for these. I enjoyed them as an engineering student many years ago, I appreciate them even more now