Propeller Type Water Turbine in Europe Some Applications of the Propeller Type Water Turbine in Proportioning of Units in Low-Head Plants

Abstract

The records of the United States Patent Office for the last fifty years will show that parallel to the cases of the Francis and Pelton wheels, pioneer work was done in America on water turbines of the propeller type. However, as the commercial demand during that period was for comparatively slow-speed machines, the propeller turbine was apparently neglected in favor of the so-called Francis type for use under low heads. The writer has no record of early European inventions of turbines of the propeller type. Reference may be made, however, to the old Journal type turbine which was occasionally built with rimless runners, with the blades strongly bent, or curved, to suit the slow speed for which such turbines were designed.