The UK’s first industrial gas turbine was developed by CA Parsons & Co beginning in the 1930s. The machine ran for the first time in 1945. All of the key elements: compressor, turbine, combustion chamber, exhaust heat exchanger and control technology were developed by CA Parsons & Co Ltd independently. The unit had to use the fuel available in WWII ie pool oil and was used to investigate the viability of operation on residual fuel oil and pulverised coal. Geoff Horseman, formerly Chief Turbine Engineer at Siemens CA Parsons Works, will tell the story of this machine using information and photos from the original development files.

About The Lecturer

Geoff Horseman worked at Parsons for 39 years from 1980 until 2019. He joined the Steam Turbine Design Dept in 1982 rising to Head of Turbine Design in 1991 and Head of Turbine-Generator Engineering in 1994.

Parsons became part of Siemens in 1997 and was joined by Westinghouse in 1998. Reorganisation led to the majority of new generator work moving to the Westinghouse sites while the majority of steam turbine work moved to the Mülheim-an-der-Ruhr and Newcastle sites.

In 1997, Geoff was appointed Chief Turbine Engineer, Siemens Power Generation.

On retirement in 2019, with Siemens permission he began to document the Parsons history so that it can be preserved in the Tyne & Wear Archive and other institutions.