Energy & Industry / Energy

Water Turbine

Fourneyron's turbine (1827) turns flowing water into rotation far more efficiently than a water wheel and works at large heads and flows.

Benoît Fourneyron built the first practical water turbine in France; James Francis (1849) and Lester Pelton (1880) added the designs still used in dams and mountain plants. Turbines made water power compact and fast enough to drive electric generators.