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61 Laval, Carl Gustaf Patrik de
SUBJECT AREA: Agricultural and food technology, Electricity, Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering, Steam and internal combustion engines[br]b. 9 May 1845 Orsa, Swedend. 2 February 1913 Stockholm, Sweden[br]Swedish inventor of an advanced cream separator and a steam turbine.[br]Gustaf de Laval was educated at the Stockholm Technical Institute and Uppsala University. He proved to have an unfailing vigour and variety in his inventive talent, for his interests ranged from electric lighting and electrometallurgy to aerodynamics. In the 1890s he employed over one hundred engineers to develop his inventions, but he was best known for two: the cream separator and a steam turbine. In 1877 he invented the high-speed centrifugal cream separator, which was probably the greatest advance in butter-making up to that time. By 1880 the separators were being successfully marketed all over the world, for they were quickly adopted in larger dairies where they effected enormous savings in labour and space. He followed this with various devices for the dairy industry, including a vacuum milking machine perfected in 1913. In c. 1882, de Laval invented a turbine on the principle of Hero's engine, but he quickly turned his attention to the impulse type, which was like Branca's, with a jet of steam impinging on a set of blades around the periphery of a wheel. He applied for a British patent in 1889. The steam was expanded in a single stage from the initial to the final pressure: to secure economy with the steam issuing at high velocity, the blades also had to rotate at high velocity. An early 5 hp (3.7 kW) turbine rotated at 30,000 rpm, so reduction gearing had to be introduced. Production started in Sweden in 1893 and in other countries at about the same time. In 1892 de Laval proposed employing one of his turbines of 15 hp (11 kW) in an experimental launch, but there is no evidence that it was ever actually installed in a vessel. However, his turbines were popular for powering electric generating sets for lighting textile mills and ships, and by 1900 were available in sizes up to 300 bhp (224 kW).[br]Bibliography1889, British patent no. 7,143 (steam turbine).Further ReadingT.Althin, 1943, Life of de Laval, Stockholm (a full biography).T.I.Williams (ed.), 1969, A Biographical Dictionary of Scientists, London: A. \& C. Black (contains a brief biography).R.M.Neilson, 1902, The Steam Turbine, London: Longmans, Green \& Co. (fully covers the development of de Laval's steam turbine).H.W.Dickinson, 1938, A Short History of the Steam Engine, Cambridge University Press (contains a short account of the development of the steam turbine).R.L.Hills, 1989, Power from Steam. A History of the Stationary Steam Engine, Cambridge University Press (contains a short account).RLHBiographical history of technology > Laval, Carl Gustaf Patrik de
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62 Reynolds, Edwin
[br]b. 1831 Mansfield, Connecticut, USAd. 1909 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA[br]American contributor to the development of the Corliss valve steam engine, including the "Manhattan" layout.[br]Edwin Reynolds grew up at a time when formal engineering education in America was almost unavailable, but through his genius and his experience working under such masters as G.H. Corliss and William Wright, he developed into one of the best mechanical engineers in the country. When he was Plant Superintendent for the Corliss Steam Engine Company, he built the giant Corliss valve steam engine displayed at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition. In July 1877 he left the Corliss Steam Engine Company to join Edward Allis at his Reliance Works, although he was offered a lower salary. In 1861 Allis had moved his business to the Menomonee Valley, where he had the largest foundry in the area. Immediately on his arrival with Allis, Reynolds began desig-ning and building the "Reliance-Corliss" engine, which becamea symbol of simplicity, economy and reliability. By early 1878 the new engine was so successful that the firm had a six-month backlog of orders. In 1888 he built the first triple-expansion waterworks-pumping engine in the United States for the city of Milwaukee, and in the same year he patented a new design of blowing engine for blast furnaces. He followed this in March 1892 with the first steam engine sets coupled directly to electric generators when Allis-Chalmers contracted to build two Corliss cross-compound engines for the Narragansett Light Company of Providence, Rhode Island. In 1893, one of the impressive attractions at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago was the 3,000 hp (2,200 kW) quadruple-expansion Reynolds-Corliss engine designed by Reynolds, who continued to make significant improvements and gained worldwide recognition of his outstanding achievements in engine building.Reynolds was asked to go to New York in 1898 for consultation about some high-horsepower engines for the Manhattan transport system. There, 225 railway locomotives were to be replaced by electric trains, which would be supplied from one generating station producing 60,000 hp (45,000 kW). Reynolds sketched out his ideas for 10,000 hp (7,500 kW) engines while on the train. Because space was limited, he suggested a four-cylinder design with two horizontal-high-pressure cylinders and two vertical, low-pressure ones. One cylinder of each type was placed on each side of the flywheel generator, which with cranks at 135° gave an exceptionally smooth-running compact engine known as the "Manhattan". A further nine similar engines that were superheated and generated three-phase current were supplied in 1902 to the New York Interborough Rapid Transit Company. These were the largest reciprocating steam engines built for use on land, and a few smaller ones with a similar layout were installed in British textile mills.[br]Further ReadingConcise Dictionary of American Biography, 1964, New York: C.Scribner's Sons (contains a brief biography).R.L.Hills, 1989, Power from Steam. A History of the Stationary Steam Engine, Cambridge University Press (provides a brief account of the Manhattan engines) Part of the information for this biography is derived from a typescript in the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC: T.H.Fehring, "Technological contributions of Milwaukee's Menomonee Valley industries".RLH
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