Fourneyron Turbine

While the Harpers Ferry Armory contended with the ongoing problem of delivering adequate waterpower to larger and more sophisticated machinery, water wheel technology was being revolutionized overseas. In 1827, Benoit Fourneyron, a French engineer, introduced a reaction turbine. Fourneyron's device channeled water through an enclosed chamber fitted with an inner ring of fixed guide blades. These guide blades deflected the water outward against the moving vanes of a "runner." The vanes of this outer runner were curved in the opposite direction from the fixed inner guide blades, reversing the direction of water flow within the device and creating a reactive force. Fourneyron's patent described his invention as "a wheel of universal and continuous pressure or hydraulic turbine."

In 1842, the owner of a cotton print-works in Fall River, Mass., saw a Fourneyron turbine in operation in France. He brought home a description of this invention and had his master machinist, George Kilburn, build a similar wheel. This new turbine was put in operation in 1844, and became the pattern for the "improved Fourneyron or Outward Discharge Turbine Water-wheel" manufactured by E.C. Kilburn & Company, a Fall River textile machine shop. In about 1848, the Harpers Ferry & Shenandoah Manufacturing Company installed two Kilburn turbines, 72 inches in diameter, in their Cotton Factory on Virginius Island. [Learn more about Virginius Island].

In 1844, Uriah A. Boyden of Lowell, Mass., patented an improved version of the "outward flow" turbine. Boyden's design featured a conical approach passage, giving the incoming water a gradually increasing velocity and a spiral motion that corresponded to the direction of the motion of the wheel. Improved guide vanes also directed the flow of water through the wheel passages more efficiently. In tests conducted by James B. Francis in 1845 and documented in the Lowell Hydraulic Experiments, the Boyden turbine was found to convert 88% of the energy available in the falling water into power. This compared extremely favorably with the 60-75% efficiency rating of a typical breast-type water wheel.

Between 1851-1853, the Harpers Ferry Armory purchased five Boyden turbines from the Ames Company of Chicopee, Mass. These cast-iron wheels measured 42 inches in diameter by four inches deep and were furnished with cast-iron flumes. The cost of the Boyden turbines ranged from $1,200-$2,000 apiece. [Learn more about the Harpers Ferry Armory].

These turbines were not, however, the first to be installed at the Harpers Ferry Armory. As early as June 30, 1846, the government purchased "1 Turbine reaction Water Wheel, with Penstock and Cast iron gates, Shafting and bevel gearing, for driving the Fan-Blast for Smith’s forges and grindstones." This wheel was most likely fabricated in the Armory's own machine shop.

Several months later, in January 1847, Armory superintendent John Symington addressed the following letter to the Ordnance Department: "From the various reports touching the merits of different water wheels improved from the French Turbines, and put in operation throughout this country. I am at a loss to determine which to select for the Armory. Two wheels of this description, highly spoken of especially as to cheapness, and known as Dripps Wheel, and Parkers Wheel, are in operation at various factories & mills at and near Coatesville and Manyunk near Phila.

"I propose therefore, provided you think proper to give me an order to that effect, to proceed to those places, will access to judge by a personal examination, and inquiries, as to the relative advantages of these wheels. and how they compare with the Turbine Wheel now in operation at the Armory...."

There is no record that Symington ever purchased either a "Dripps Wheel" or "Parker Patent Percussion & Reaction Water Wheel" -- both products of small American machine shops. But armory managers were clearly interested at an early date in learning more about turbine technology.