Karl Gustaf Patrik de Laval was a Swedish engineer and inventor who made important contributions to the design of steam turbines and centrifugal separation machinery for dairy.
de Laval 1875
de Laval's forge in Kloster
Gustaf de Laval at the age around 50.
Impulse Turbine by Gustaf de Laval. Built in Sweden, 1888. Deutsches Museum, Munich.
A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbine involves advanced metalwork to form high-grade steel alloys into precision parts using technologies that first became available in the 20th century; continued advances in durability and efficiency of steam turbines remains central to the energy economics of the 21st century.
The rotor of a modern steam turbine used in a power plant
A 250 kW industrial steam turbine from 1910 (right) directly linked to a generator (left)
The first steam turbine-powered ship Turbinia: fastest in the world at that time
A steam turbine without its top cover