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
Alfred Giles (civil engineer) Alfred Giles (civil engineer) Alfred Giles (3 October 1816 – 1895) was a British civil engineer and Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1878 and 1892. Giles was born in London, the second son of Francis Giles canal builder and railway engineer and his wife Mary Ann Wyer, daughter of Samuel Wyer of Birmingham. He was educated at Charterhouse School and became a civil engineer, constructing railways and dock works in Britain and overseas. He was consulting Engineer to Southampton Dock Co., chairman of Union Steamship Co. and a director of Commercial Union Fire and Life