INVENTOR’S CLAIMS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 63, 24 February 1934, Page 3

INVENTOR’S CLAIMS

Gas Turbine Designed

FAVOURABLE REPORT Claims that he designed a gas turbine giving at least 100 per cent, greater efficiency than any other type of engine known are made by an Auckland inventor, Mr \V. E. Harvie, of Mangers. Mr Harvie, who has been experimenting for the past five years, will leave on April 6 for Sydney, where he will join the Bendigo for England. An experimental engine constructed in Auckland, which embodies an entirely new cycle of operation, will be taken to England by Mr Harvie. He will submit it to leading British technical experts and mechanical engineers, who have already promised to make available every facility for a most thorough and searching test. A full description of the turbine was forwarded to experts in England about a year ago, and Mr Ilarvie’s forthcoming trip is tho outcome of their investigations, and also of local tests carried out by engineers representing British interests. HIGH POWER OUTPUT. The report of two engineers who spent 10 days examining and testing the turbine in Auckland stated that the inventor’s theories were undoubtedly sound, and that, on being put into practice on an engine of much greater mechanical perfection than that made locally for experiments, they would result in a very high power output per unit of fuel used, compared with other engines. The report added that the Harvie turbine would be compact and cheap to construct, and would have the great advantage in aviation of increasing the flying range enormously for a given weight of fuel.

The invention is similar in general construction to a steam turbine, a type of power unit widely used throughout the world. The Harvie turbine how,ever is eaid to be suitable for application to any purpose where power is required, in sizes ranging from units for motor-cycles to giant turbines for driving ocean liners. The device is an internal-combustion engine in which gas, heated by the combustion of a liquid fuel, is used to drive a reaction turbine.

The method of operation of the Harvie turbine is likened by the inventor to the atmospheric changes which result in winds blowing to the centres of low barometric pressure. Two pumps lower the pressure at the centre of the turbine, causing a flow of gas which might be compared to a wind as it rushes to the centre of low pressure, actuating the various stages of rotor rings. LIKE SERIES OF WINDMILLS. The rings of blades, or rotors, are like a series of windmills, each operating to drive the same shaft. The gas used to drive the engine is derived from the burning of any suitable fuel, such as petrol, crude oil or coal-dust. “The invention is not the first gas turbine to be evolved,’’ Mr Harvie said yesterday. “Since the inception of the steam turbine, engineers the world over have been seeking to utilise gases in the same way as steam has been applied, but with very indifferent results. The chief difficulty of previous experimenters has been their inability to depart from the internal-combustion cycle of operation. In the Harvie turbine, this lias been achieved, and another difficulty, that of controlling temperature, has been completely overcome.’’ Mr Harvie explained that the advantages of an efficient gas turbine over a steam unit were the smaller size of the gas typo for a given power output, its lower cost owing to there being no need for boilers and furnaces, greater economy of operation and the very wide range of application. The invention is fully covered by patents throughout the world.