Inventions & Discoveries · Energy and power

Steam turbine

1551 · 16th century

A steam turbine is a heat engine that extracts energy from pressurised steam to turn a rotating shaft; Taqi al-Din described one that turned a spit in Ottoman Egypt in 1551, after the aeolipile of Hero of Alexandria. Its modern form was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884: his first model was connected to a dynamo generating 7.5 kilowatts, and his turbine made cheap and plentiful electricity possible and changed marine transport and naval warfare. Steam turbines generated about 42 per cent of the United States' electricity in 2022.

Steam turbine
Image: Andy Dingley (scanner) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

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First known
1551
Where
Ottoman Egypt
Credited to
Taqi al-Din · Charles Parsons · Ottoman Empire

NoteTaqi al-Din’s turbine turned a roasting spit; the modern steam turbine was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884.

Built onAeolipile1st century CE
Led toJet engine1937

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See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Steam turbine. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/steam-turbine
MLA
“Steam turbine.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/steam-turbine. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Steam turbine.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/steam-turbine.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Steam turbine’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/steam-turbine (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻