5 H.P. Sturtevant Steam Turbine with 5 spanners

5 H.P. Sturtevant Steam Turbine with 5 spanners

This is a small impulse turbine in which a low shaft speed is obtained by fully expanding the steam in divergent nozzles, and then passing it several times round the buckets of a single wheel. This arrangement, while not giving a high economy, is eminently suitable for driving small dynamos, pumps, blowers, etc., where a simple and reliable engine, needing little attention, is required. The idea of velocity compounding in a single set of buckets, although suggested 60 years previously, was first successfully applied by Prof. J. Stumpf about 1903. The machine shown, while resembling that of Stumpf, embodies improvements patented by Mr. O. O. H. Bentley in 1909, and in it the steam passes through the wheel a larger number of times.