(From The Lake District at Work by J.D.Marshall and M. Davies-Shiel, published in 1971)
Williamson turbine no.388 of 1878 at Spark Bridge bobbin mill in 1967 (MDS 60-59)
A turbine is essentially a perfect waterwheel of high performance, completely enclosed and with no power wastage through spilling or the bubbling of air, or counter-currents at the base of the wheel. Although there were numerous turbine inventions in the early 19th century, Fourneyron, about 1827, is regarded as the real originator of the modern turbine.
After several devices had been put on the market, Professor Thomson of Queen’s College, Belfast, invented one which proved to be highly suitable to Lakeland conditions, namely the vortex wheel, which received water at the circumference and delivered it at the centre. It was designed locally for a wide range of heads and powers.
In the year 1856, soon after the invention was patented, Williamson Bros of Kendal began to make these machines at the Canal Iron Works. They were about 75% efficient as a rule. This enterprising firm, erstwhile agricultural engineers, found a satisfactory market in a district which was accustomed to water power, and by 1881, when Gilbert Gilkes took over, 502 turbines had been sold, many of them in Lakeland.
Under Gilkes’ leadership new designs were added, including those of Pelton wheels and Francis turbines, and the subsequent sales drive ensured that almost every Lakeland mill, mine, quarry, public power company, farm and hotel had its own turbine by about 1940, when the firm of Gilbert Gilkes & Gordon and sold over 6,000 both at home and abroad. The firm came to specialise in low fall/large volume machines for its wider markets, while among the more important customers locally was the London Lead Company, with its famous mines on Alston Moor. By 1940 well over 40,000bhp was in use in wheels and turbines in the Lake Counties.
Orders too small for Gilkes to execute were given to a Staveley man, W.H.Storey, who, self taught, built 75 small Francis and Pelton turbines between 1924 and 1958. His major achievement was to design and build the entire turbine and generator plant to provide light and power to Salcombe in Devon in 1928. He specialised in the manufacture of small model turbines for demonstration purposes. Casings were cast for him by Messrs Gilkes or other local millwrights or engineers, but he cast and machined everything else.
See also A Short History of Gilbert Gilkes & Gordon Ltd.