Sir Charles Algernon Parsons (1854-1931) was a British engineer who perfected the steam turbine that bears his name.

Charles Parsons was born on June 13, 1854, in London. His father, William Parsons, 3d Earl of Rosse, was a distinguished astronomer and sometime president of the Royal Society. Charles and his brothers were tutored by eminent scholars working in his father's observatory at Birr Castle, Parsonstown (now called Birr), in King's County, Ireland (Offalay, Eire). He attended Trinity College, Dublin (1871-1873), and Cambridge University (1873-1877), where he distinguished himself in mathematics. He then worked at the Armstrong engineering works located at Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1877-1881).

In 1884 Parsons joined a Gateshead partnership and entered the new field of electrical engineering. The production of cheap electricity in quantity demanded prime movers with outputs and efficiencies high above those of reciprocating engines. Thus Parsons developed the steam turbine, a machine with a long conceptual but no...