Turbine waterwheels. Gas, steam, and water turbines have a casing around the blades that contains and controls the working fluid. Credit for invention of the steam turbine is given both to Anglo-Irish engineer Sir Charles Parsons (1854–1931) for invention of the reaction turbine, and to Swedish engineer Gustaf de Laval (1845–1913) for invention of the impulse turbine. Modern steam turbines frequently employ both reaction and impulse in the same unit, typically varying the degree of reaction and impulse from the blade root to its periphery. The word "turbine" was coined in 1822 by the French mining engineer Claude Burdin from the
Metropolitan Steamship Company Judith. Simple expansion steam engines gave a speed of 13 knots. The line's first iron-hulled propeller, the "General Whitney", was built in 1873 by Harlan & Hollingsworth at Wilmington, Delaware. A vessel of 1,848 tons, she measured 227 feet in length with a beam of 40 feet, and was propelled by two-cylinder compound engines. All of the company's iron steamers were designed by Herman Winter, the line's chief engineer from 1872 to 1891. Upon the death of James Whitney on October 24, 1878, Henry Whitney was elected his successor as president of the steamship line. In addition, he retained the