Segner wheel
18th-century water turbine that paved the way for modern reaction turbines.
The Segner wheel, also known as the Segner turbine or reaction turbine, is a type of water turbine invented by Johann Andreas Segner in the 18th century. It operates on the same principle as Hero's aeolipile, using hydrostatic pressure to eject water from nozzles and rotate a rotor. The device was historically significant as an early water turbine, though its direct influence on steam engine development is not supported by established historical canon.
- Also known as
- Reaction turbine
Lore & Background
The Segner wheel is placed in a suitable hole in the ground or at the slope of a hill. Water is delivered to the top of a vertical cylinder, at the bottom of which is a rotor with specially bent pipes and nozzles. Due to hydrostatic pressure, water is ejected from the nozzles, causing the rotor to rotate. The useful torque is transferred to a powered device through a belt and pulley system.
Reader's Guide
The Segner wheel holds significance as an early water turbine that demonstrated the principle of reaction, later applied in steam engines. Segner turbines, also called reaction or Scotch turbines, were built in the mid-1850s to power the inclined plane lifts along the Morris Canal in New Jersey. Today, the Segner wheel principle is used in irrigation sprinklers. Alexander Bogdanov cited this as an example of an important innovation which paved the way for the development of steam engines. A notable surviving example is the turbine at Museo Hacienda Buena Vista, described as 'the only pre-Scotch type known to exist' and 'a missing link in the evolution of mechanical artifacts' according to The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archaeology (Vol. 4, No. 1 [1978], pp.55–58). This turbine was invented at the close of the 17th century by Dr. Baker, though the article notes this inventor and date, preserving the uncertainty of the source.
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