A Contribution to the Solution of the Gas Turbine Problem

This paper, which is an attempt to summarize the author’s work on the gas turbine, is to a great extent based upon his own ideas and inventionst. An attempt has been made to follow the trend of thought from, for the most part, unpublished test data, as well as diagrams and layouts. However, it has not been possible to give a complete story within the scope of this paper, and many interesting details have had to be left out. This paper covers the period 1929-45, and the latest developments in the marine, locomotive, and aeroplane field are not included. 1. THE FIRST STAGE Early gas turbine inventors and experts (e.g. Parsons in his first turbine patents of 1884, and Stolze in 1900) thought that a gas turbine should incorporate a normal single- or multiple-stage “steam ” turbine with normal or somewhat higher temperature (Stolze mentions 300-400 deg. C. (572-752 deg. F.)), but they soon found that practically no surplus work could be expected by these means. Later on, the most favoured opinion was that single-stag