Water turbine took about one hundred years. Development occurred during the Industrial revolution, using scientific principles and methods. They also made extensive use of new materials and manufacturing methods developed at the time. The word turbine was introduced by the French engineer Claude Burdin in the early 19th century and is derived from the Greek word "τύρβη" for "whirling" or a "vortex". The main difference between early water turbines and water wheels is a swirl component of the water which passes energy to a spinning rotor. This additional component of motion allowed the turbine to be smaller than a water wheel of
Gas turbine locomotive early 1970s (ETG and RTG) and were used extensively up to about 2000. SNCF (French National Railways) used a number of gas-turbine trainsets, called the Turbotrain, in non-electrified territory. These typically consisted of a power car at each end with three cars between them. Turbotrain was in use up until 2005. After retirement, 4 sets were sold for further use in Iran. In the 1940s and 1950s research was conducted, in both the US and UK, aimed at building gas turbine locomotives which could run on pulverized coal. The main problem was to avoid erosion of the turbine blades by