What I like about these videos is that they embody the “clear and vivid” form of science communication described by Alan Alda. Few added frills, just let the thing be cool by its own merit and clearly explain the thing you’re passionate about.

The chosen one has returned.

Your video about the design of aluminum cans is what inspired in me the love for engineering that eventually turned into a career - thank you! This new series of videos perfectly captures so many ideas that I've never seen described directly, and it's filled with interesting examples. I'm so glad that you're still making these videos.

These videos should be shown to all students, and the book read by all 1st semester engineering students, I certainly would have known more of what I was getting myself into. I hope you continue this channel after the promotional videos for your book, your work is concise, well researched understandable by laymen and trained alike, a true feat of engineering.

4:55: It seems to me that the plastic model turbine is shown back to front. The curved blades should increase in angle as the steam passes through the disc, and so on for the following discs. Think of each blade as an aerofoil. Apart from that, thank you, from one Bill to another, for your video.

This video is a gift to society! I’m so excited watching this !!!

Steam turbines are my bread and butter. The coolest thing is that they are so well-balanced, you can spin a 330,000# LP rotor by hand, once you put oil to it in the bearing. They're great.

Every once in a while, the universe smiles on us and the Engineering Guy delivers a new video. 😊 Well done, we missed you!

I was wondering how Parsons determined how to size the rotors. When you revealed the diligent work of Regnault my jaw dropped! What an amazing resource for an engineer. Thank you for this informative series and book.

In 1971 at age 16 I went to Marine Engineer College in South Shields, England to learn how ships worked. We learned about reciprocating engine, took many examples apart (taken from scrapped ships) and learned how to put them back together and set up the slide valves. That was fun - but it was only when we started on turbine theory did a light bulb go on for me. I grasped the impulse-reaction principle straight away and was hooked on turbines. As a senior engineer I worked on VLCC tankers with steam turbine plants and high pressure boilers - they had excellent precision control but were very fuel hungry. At 26,000 SHP at full speed, I needed to put 240 tonnes of heavy fuel into the boilers every day. Turbines gave way to diesels - no way near as neat or as controllable , but they only burned 90 tonnes of fuel a day for about the same output power - a no brainer if you are paying the costs. I am glad that I had my time standing between the turbines as they spooled up to full sea speed. This was an experience that all engineers should have at least once. Now you only see turbines in nuclear or power plants , the steam turbine has largely vanished from the Marine world. If you ever get the chance to visit Newcastle on Tyne in UK, there is an excellent museum dedicated to Turbinia, the development of reaction turbines and the life and work of one of Britain's greatest engineers - Charlie Parsons.

I remember when I was a wee lad in middle school when I first saw your video on the genius behind aluminum can designs. Never thought I'd imagine someday I would eventually join the giants, but here I am finally a professional engineer, 3 years in the industry. Some flames just needed a bit of spark. And that middle schooled spark was all thanks to you, engineerguy.

I have made a post Army career being a steam turbine generator engineer for a large generation company. I travel to many many site to do detailed inspections. I'm constantly blown away by the vast amount of refinement over the past 150 years that got us to the modern rotor design. The new stuff ia great but my favorite plants are the ones built in the 60s and 70s. They are examples of what slide rule design can do. The mechanical hydraulic controls are far and away my favorite.

The anecdote you closed your book with, you and your father watching the activity of a factory one more time, made me tear up a bit. What a wonderful and bittersweet moment.

As someone working on a graduate degree in Thermal Fluid systems, I had never heard of Parsons. Thanks for telling his story

This series is a true masterpiece, awesome job!

Keep them coming Bill, love your work and welcome back.

As someone fascinated by philosophy of science your lucid analysis of the engineering method vs the scientific method was absolutely delightful. Thank you for your work!

Bill's channel was the first channel i subscribed too. KZfaq gold.

Charles Prson's original Turbinia is on display at the Museum of Science and Technology in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, as are examples of his turbine engines. Also, at the CA Parsons Heaton works, just outside Newcastle, you could occasionally see large turbine rotors being placed inside a huge steel tank where they were spun up for testing and balancing.

I have taken my grandchildren to the Discovery Museum Newcastle many times to see the Turbinia. The thing that always strikes mel is the fact that the turbine drove the propeller so fast that the water ate its way through the bronze it was made from. Parsons had to redesign the propeller to something very similar to those we use to this day. Engineers just keep engineering!

Love to see you making content again!

Earlier today, I visited the "Glasgow Transport Museum" which houses the original exposed turbine from the World's first Commercial Steam Turbine Ship - The TS King Edward - The predecessor to many of the magnificent turbine liners of the 20th century such as the RMS Queen Mary or SS United States, and I was thinking to myself: I only wish I knew EXACTLY how this thing works. Well thank you for saving the day! A magnificent and simply yet thorough explanation.

It is amazing how modern turbines are basically the same design as Parson's. Great video.

The quality doesn't disappoint. Always enjoy showing how Engineering is often the fusion of existing technologies / ideas as opposed to the creation of the new, where the fusion ends up being greater than the sum of its parts. Glad to have your content back in my feed again!

Mr. Hammack, these videos are nothing short of phenomenal. Your clear and detailed, yet concise delivery is beyond comparison. Thank you so very much for these videos.

So glad to see Engineerguy return to making videos.

It is always an amazing day when we get a new video from the Engineer Guy! This should become mandatory viewing for ANYONE working with turbines.

Nice to see more of your content. Welcome back to engineering content creation! I am now 70 and spent my life as a professional engineer, albeit in IT. However I went to school in Newcastle UK , and visited the Science Museum there a few times in my teen years and was fascinated by the Turbinia. There is now a dedicated exhibit hall for the ship. Parsons was one of two great Victorian Tyneside Engineers. The other was Armstrong who is now more famous for creating a UK Arms Industrustry based on heavy breech loading rifled naval guns, but he made his initial fortune developing hydraulic machinery for dockside loading and unloading.

Welcome back!!! So glad you're back in my feed.

The Turbinia is in a museum near where I live (Discovery Museum, Newcastle, UK), I've been to see it a few times over the years and it still gives an aura of effortless speed; it's like seeing a thoroughtbred locked in a stable.

It's like a beautiful story, easy for even me to understand. Well done.

When he showed the volumes, and revealed that they represented 30 years of dedicated study... wow.

I can make a sound argument that those who most respect scientists are engineers and those who most respect engineers are scientists.

I love how this channel goes years with no posts and then there's a post EVERY DAY for like a week! I'm on an engineering binge!

Always fascinated by all the various 'heat engines'. The Navy ship I served on, we used turbines that had two-wheel Curtis stage, followed by several Rateau stages (what we called 'velocity and pressure compounded'). Those turbines were extremely rugged and needed very little maintenance. Great video.

Thorough loss of joy and happiness has been a massive problem going into my 30's (37 now), so it means a lot when I say that I genuinely got a little excited to see a new upload here. 🙂

It is too bad not as many people know about parsons as know about the Kardashians.

What??? In 6:05, the turbine rotates in the right direction alright, but the direction of the steam comes-in from the wrong side. You need a stator stage at the opposite end and the steam needs to enter from there. Your flow vectors don't add up for a turbine, but basically defines a compressor running in the false direction.

Incredible video explained in such detail, yet simple enough for non engineering or scientific minds to comprehend. I never had this device explained so clearly and simply. I was lucky enough to grow up close to the Parsons home in Birr, Co. Offaly, Ireland,, where the one of the original turbines is on display, in the tour of this magnificent castle & gardens.

I'm so glad I can watch your videos again, as interesting and clever as ever. They truly are a gem. Thank you very much.

HE'S BACK! WOO HOO!

This video contains the most understandable depiction of the working parts of both a piston steam engine and a steam turbine that I have ever seen. Well done, Bill, and it's great to have you posting new videos!

You're back! I missed your videos and am so happy to see you returning to teach on KZfaq more. Thank you for all the effort you put in to these videos, they are always enlightening and soothing to listen to.

i've been loving your recent return, please keep this up

Amazing video. Having learned turbomachinery design in school, I was blown away by the way you made it so simple to understand. And it's also amazing to learn how Parsons managed to build such a complicated machine way back then. Thank you so much for this channel, Bill, and keep illuminating the world with wisdom!

Absolutely fantastic video. Wonderful to have you back, Bill.

Those cut aways were helpful for me and loved how you combined both rotation methods in the turbine, thanks very interesting.

The stories regarding the absolute stupidity of the Royal Navy's top brass are worthy of a whole KZfaq series. They really got things wrong to a remarkable degree of reliability.

What a fantastic video and beautifully explained process. I live near Newcastle upon Tyne. The Turbinia is held as an exhibit at the Newcastle Discovery museum. I have spent so many hours with my kids visiting this museum.. Now my youngest is 21 and an engineer himself, it builds a picture. To add to this, the museum also has exhibits of William George Armstrong's many achievements , whom, like Parsons was an industrial titan of the 19c. Sadly, Newcastle is not the industrial powerhouse it once was, but we are all very proud of our history. Let's not forget Joseph Swan.. another name among many and for any American readers, I will let you look up what he did.

Biggest W of 2023 is engineerguy's return ❤

I know you took a break for whatever reason, but please carry on with your wonderful explanations. The world would be a poorer place without you.

I love how first the idea is crude and rudimentary. Then with future innovations, the technology gets smaller and much more efficient.

I've always wanted a crash course on how steam turbines worked but never got around to looking at the details. This is fantastic!

I feel at home! Comfy engineering videos. Thank you for continuing with these.

One of the best engineering videos I’ve ever seen. Thankyou so much!

Absolutely brilliant video.! Never fully understood the intricates of the turbine until now...

Welcome back

Another great video! Saw your talk at UPenn last month and enjoyed that too. Keep up the great work!

Outstanding explanation. I finally understand the naval steam turbine revolution that was adopted widely in the early 20th century. And Winston Churchill saw the light early.

Thank for sharing your magnificent knowledge! I really missed those videos

I love these videos, and it's killing me that the air flow is backwards in the turbine!

This is the first video that's been recommended to me (although being subscribed [but without receiving notifications]) since you started back up and I'm so excited you're back educating the world after your break!

And we still use them today: they can be found in every nuclear power plant (be that on land generating electricity for the grid or at sea powering submarines and aircraft carriers).

first

I've been looking forward to this episode since you announced the new series, turbines are just so damn cool and we're the first thing that got me really interested in engineering. Stators are such a simple yet incredibly impactful addition, what every good engineering solution strives to be.

i had the honour of serving my engineering apprentice years working at CA Parsons, Newcastle, working on the huge low pressure end of the turbines, setting the blades, it maybe worth noting that in another devision of the huge factory {Grub Parsons },was also built, huge optical telescopes, one being the Anglo/Ausralian telescope in Siding Spring Observatory, Australia, the largest telescope in the southern hemisphere, in which i also had a small part in its construction, as an apprentice, I worked on building some of the bearing castings, ( I slyly cast my initials, TAC, inside some of the bearing casings, ( my only claim to fame ) ,, cheers

Clearest and best description of the principles of a turbine and the role of the stationary blades I have ever heard. Thank you!

I steamed a Cruiser, 4 1200 psi Boulers at 975d F! and to hear the machinery speed up and slow down during speed chages is facinating!

Fanstastic! I wish I had such inspiring conceptual presentations during my engineering studies. Puts this field into a wholistic perspective.

Never underestimate the power of a demonstration.

I'm so glad that Bill is back. As a mechanical engineer, I love this channel!

I am SO EXCITED to see Mr. Hammack back!!! So great to see your videos sir!

just wonderful. nice explanation of complex , complicated design of steam turbines

This is simply the greatest video that's ever created by human. It has great story, great narration, it's based on true story and you can learn something from it.

Oh my god he’s back!??? Did a double take when I saw the vid pop up

I don't think I can quite express how beautiful it is to hear your voice and cadence describing feats of engineering again.

The exactness and efficiency of these videos remind me of the "Architect" in the movie " The Matrix Reloaded". Misplace one word and there would be diminishment, well done.

My only regret watching these videos is that I binge them back to back and then have to wait half a decade for another new upload. Someone in some network please pick this man up for a show contract, we need an engineering Kurzgesagt

Always a joy to see another Engineer Guy video.

The engineering method - love it! I'm writing that down somewhere I'll remember. Welcome back!

The very first video I watched of yours was of the black box (flight data recorder) and I have been watching more and more videos of yours ever since. I am so glad that you are posting more even though I can’t get enough of your old videos.

Your clear videos are definitely a boon to posterity, bringing to vivid life the way things work and almost more importantly how we got there. As a trained physicist become engineer on a steam project, I find your closing statement of the engineering method intriguing - my college’s engineering school appended “applied science” onto their name :) Clive Cussler wrote a novel about the steam-turbine ships and dreadnoughts, and included Turbinia; it’s in his Isaac Bell series I think it’s called “The Spy”

Wow i am really engrossed by the way you present your videos! I wasn't really that interested in engineering before but the way you explain things in a concise manner really drew me in. Nice channel👍

I am a simple man, I see engineering guy and I like it. Awesome channel, no matter the activity.

Nice job Engineerguy. Retired power plant operator here. Lord knows I've had to explain this sort of thing over and over again. I really hope that those weren't Parson's actual books. I'd really hate to think that they would allow anyone to actually touch them for the sake of a KZfaq video. They are holy things. Let them abide. :)

Bill is back, baby! Having these new videos is fantastic!

Mr Bill Hammack. Deep gratitude and admiration for your brilliant exposition. Warm personal regards. Atanu

What a great explanation of how a steam turbine works. Sure steam inpinges on a turbine blade everyone knows that, but a steam turbine in series is a whole new animal. Thanks for your video. I really enjoyed it. So interesting.

This is the best explanation of a turbine I've seen yet, and the first time I've ever really understood it. Most of the time I've seen something like "blow on a fan with a straw and you've got a turbine" but I could tell there was more to it.

I'm so glad to have new videos from you. I would listen to you narrate Terms of Service.

Pick a topic that is exceedingly tedious or boring or incredibly complex and Bill Hammack can wade through the subject and create a presentation that is perfectly clear and concise. Honestly if this fellow was one of my college instructors this 70 year old guy would still be in school!

Good grief, this takes me back. The Parsons turbine "the one featured" I worked on during my apprenticeship in the 60's. The boilers were massive, 100' high, they ran on "Dross, crushed coal" I was intoxicated as a wee boy, to see how this machine could generate so much power, hmm, still do!

I am so happy he's back. This is the only missing KZfaq person I have truly missed. The professor I wish I'd had in school. Welcome back!!

I love your explanation and graphic images, really clear and concise. Thanks.

Glad to see you are posting KZfaq videos again. Several folks in my book club have read and thoroughly enjoyed your book "The things we make."

I wasn't expecting to see a new video of yours appear in my feed but I'm glad I did. Welcome back.

Glad to have you back online sir!

I'd always wondered about the very things you finally described. I had no sense of the power steam had. I didn't understand why rotors sizes varied. A fascination which began when I was in 3rd grade. Thank you.

I'm shocked and delighted to see a new video on this channel!

I'm so happy you are well and making videos again!!😃