ON THE TURBINE OP FRANCE AND GERMANY. 
151 
machine being so rapid) when a])))lied to spinning machinery, it needs no 
mill work, or but very little, to bring it to the requisite speed. 
The invention of the Turbine belongs to M. Fourneyron, and in its pro- 
sent tbria it consists of a horizontal water-wlieel, in the centre of which the 
water enters: diverging from the centre in every direction, it enters nil the 
buckets at once, and escapes at the circumference or external perij)hery of 
the wheel. The water acts on the buckets of the revolving wheel with a 
pressure in proportion to the vertical column or height of the fall; and it is 
led or directed into these buckets by stationary guide curves, placed upon 
MdsMured to a fixed platform within the circle of the revolving part of the 
machine. 
Ihe efflux of the water is regulated by a hollow cylindrical sluice, to 
which a number of stops, acting simultaneously between the guide curves, 
are fixed. 
With this short cylinder or hoop they are all raised or lowered together, 
by means of screws communicating with a regulator or governor, so that 
the opening of the sluice and stops may be increased or diminished in pro¬ 
portion as the velocity of the wheel may require to be accelerated or re¬ 
tarded. 
This cylindrical sluice alone might serve to regulate the efflux of the 
water, but the stops serve to steady and support the v uide curves, and pre¬ 
vent tremor. 
i urbines may be considered as divided into two classes, the low pres¬ 
sure and the liigh pressure. The Plates will better explain lltc con- 
struaion of these machines and the arrangement of tlieir parts, than a longer 
verbal description. 
M. Fourneyron began his experiments in 1823, and in 18S7 he erected 
ijs first Turbine at Pont sur I’Ognon in France. Thu result far exceeded 
hii expectations, but he had much prcjiidico to contend with; and it was not 
*834 that he constructed another, in Francho-Comte, at the iron-works 
M. Caron, to blow a furnace. It was of seven or eight horses’ power, 
«uid worked at times with a fall of only nine inches. Its perfbnnance was 
^ MtisfaetDry, tiiat the same proprietor had afterwards another of fifty 
uorses’ power erected, to replace two water-wlieela, which together were 
^1^ thirty horses' power. 
I^fall of water was four feet three inches, anil the useful eflect varied 
the head and the inmiersion of the Turbine from 65 to 80 per ceut. 
oiiiera were now erected; two for falls of seven feet, one at Inval 
“ear Gijors, for a fail of six feet six inches, the power being nearly forty 
orses, on the river Epie, expending thirty-five cubic feet of water per 
the useful effect being 71 per cent, of the force employed, 
r II u* sixty-three feet gave 75 per cent.; and when it had the 
“ height of column for which it was constructed, namely, seventy-nine 
'ts useful effect is said to have readied 87 per cent, of tlie power ex¬ 
pended. * 
Another with IS6 feet fall gave 81 per cent., and one with 144 feet fall 
80 per cent. 
At tile instance of M. Arago, n commission of inquiry was instituted by 
e government of France, and examined the Turbine of Inval near Paris, 
« total fall of water being six feet six inches, as has been before men- 
-I putting a dam in the river, below the Turbine, so as to raise 
't' liui.^ater and diminish the head to three feet nine indies, the effect was 
0* equal to 70 per cent.; with the head diminished to two feet the effect 
