ABSTRACT
By the late nineteenth century, the steam engine had been brought to a high state of development, providing another approach to reliable operation of electricity generators. But, in this application, steam engines have several disadvantages: The reciprocating motion of the pistons needs to be converted to the rotary motion of the generator. This is inefficient and produces significant vibration. Reciprocating steam engines are slow. As the nineteenth century drew to a close, a major need of the rising electrical industry was an engine that could both run at very high speeds and provide smooth, vibration-free operation. A turbine in which steam is the working fluid—the steam turbine—meets both requirements, and soon took over the job of driving electricity generators.
