C. A. Parsons and Company was a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
engineering firm which was once one of the largest employers on
TynesideTyneside is a conurbation in North East England, defined by the Office of National Statistics, which is home to over 80% of the population of Tyne and Wear. It includes the city of Newcastle upon Tyne and the Metropolitan Boroughs of Gateshead, North Tyneside and South Tyneside — all settlements on...
.
History
The Company was founded by
Charles Algernon ParsonsSir Charles Algernon Parsons OM KCB FRS was an Anglo-Irish engineer, best known for his invention of the steam turbine. He worked as an engineer on dynamo and turbine design, and power generation, with great influence on the naval and electrical engineering fields...
in 1889 to produce
turbo-generatorsIn electricity generation, an electric generator is a device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy. A generator forces electric charge to flow through an external electrical circuit. It is analogous to a water pump, which causes water to flow...
, his own invention.
At the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the company was producing up to 50 turbines a year at its factory in
HeatonHeaton is a residential suburb and is split into two electoral wards located in the east end of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, about from the City Centre. It is bordered by the neighbouring areas of Benton and Cochrane Park to the north, Walker and Walkergate to the east, Byker to the south and...
in
Newcastle upon TyneNewcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
. The company's heyday was in the 1960s, when the factory employed more than 7,000 people at its 100 acre split site.
Nuclear power stations using Parsons turbo-generators include Bradwell,
Calder HallSellafield is a nuclear reprocessing site, close to the village of Seascale on the coast of the Irish Sea in Cumbria, England. The site is served by Sellafield railway station. Sellafield is an off-shoot from the original nuclear reactor site at Windscale which is currently undergoing...
,
DungenessDungeness nuclear power station comprises a pair of nuclear power stations located on the Dungeness headland in the south east of Kent, England.-Dungeness A:...
, Heysham 2 and
OldburyOldbury nuclear power station is a nuclear power station located on the south bank of the River Severn close to the village of Oldbury-on-Severn in South Gloucestershire, England. It is operated by Magnox North Limited, on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority...
in
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and
ChapelcrossChapelcross was a Magnox nuclear power plant located near the town of Annan in Dumfries and Galloway in south west Scotland. It was the sister plant to Calder Hall in Cumbria, England, both commissioned and originally operated by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority.The primary purpose of...
and
HunterstonHunterston B Power Station is a nuclear power station in North Ayrshire, Scotland. It is located about 9 km south of Largs and about 4 km north-west of West Kilbride. It is operated by EDF Energy...
in
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
The company merged with
A. Reyrolle & CompanyA. Reyrolle & Company was a British engineering firm, which for many years was one of the largest employers on Tyneside.-History:The company was founded by Alphonse Constant Reyrolle, a Frenchman, in 1886 at Fitzroy Square in London to produce scientific instruments. He moved the business to...
to form Reyrolle Parsons in 1968. In 1977 Reyrolle Parsons merged with
Clarke ChapmanClarke Chapman is a British engineering firm based in Gateshead, which was formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange.-History:The company was founded in 1864 in Gateshead by William Clarke...
to form
Northern Engineering IndustriesNorthern Engineering Industries plc was a British engineering firm, which for over 10 years was one of the largest employers on Tyneside. It was based in Gosforth in Newcastle upon Tyne.-History:...
plc, which itself was acquired by
Rolls-Royce plcRolls-Royce Group plc is a global power systems company headquartered in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s second-largest maker of aircraft engines , and also has major businesses in the marine propulsion and energy sectors. Through its defence-related activities...
in 1989.
The company survives today as part of the power generation division of the industrial conglomerate,
SiemensSiemens AG is a German multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Munich, Germany. It is the largest Europe-based electronics and electrical engineering company....
, who acquired the business from Rolls-Royce in 1997.
Siemens announced in late 2002 that they would be cutting 400 of the 700 jobs at the Heaton works by 2004, shifting the operation to focussing on the servicing side of the business, blaming a downturn in world markets following the September 11 attacks and
Enron scandalThe Enron scandal, revealed in October 2001, eventually led to the bankruptcy of the Enron Corporation, an American energy company based in Houston, Texas, and the dissolution of Arthur Andersen, which was one of the five largest audit and accountancy partnerships in the world...
, creating a downturn in orders in 2003. They also announced they would be focusing their manufacturing operations at their factory in
BudapestBudapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, where labour was cheaper.
Parsons turbines are now on display in several museums in the UK, and across the world. These include the Discovery Museum in Newcastle, the
Science MuseumThe Science Museum is one of the three major museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is part of the National Museum of Science and Industry. The museum is a major London tourist attraction....
in London, and the Electric Power and Historical Museum, in
Yokohamais the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
, Japan.
See also
- Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company
Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company was a British engineering company based in Wallsend, North England, on the River Tyne.-History:The company was founded by Charles Algernon Parsons in 1897 with £500,000 of capital, and specialised in building the steam turbine engines that he had invented for...
- A. Reyrolle & Company
A. Reyrolle & Company was a British engineering firm, which for many years was one of the largest employers on Tyneside.-History:The company was founded by Alphonse Constant Reyrolle, a Frenchman, in 1886 at Fitzroy Square in London to produce scientific instruments. He moved the business to...
- Clarke Chapman
Clarke Chapman is a British engineering firm based in Gateshead, which was formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange.-History:The company was founded in 1864 in Gateshead by William Clarke...
- Mechanical Engineering Heritage (Japan)
The is a list of sites, landmarks, machines, and documents that made significant contributions to the development of mechanical engineering in Japan. Items in the list are certified by the .- Overview :...
No. 4; Parsons Steam Turbine, made in 1908, upon technical licensed to Mitsubishi, or MHI, is a Japanese company. It is one of the core companies of Mitsubishi Group.-History:In 1870 Yataro Iwasaki, the founder of Mitsubishi took a lease of Government-owned Nagasaki Shipyard. He named it Nagasaki Shipyard & Machinery Works, and started the shipbuilding business on a full scale...
-Japan in 1904.