A turbine represents a simple but effective way to harness energy by changing the force of a moving fluid into circular motion. Gas turbines are essentially a refinement of an ancient technology that underwent a rapid development in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Water turbines such as water wheels, which use the energy of moving water to drive grain mills, for instance, have been in use for millennia. Windmills, which came in use in the Middle East in the 900s and in Europe in the 1100s, formed the next major step in the development of the turbine. The invention of machines that burned fuel to boost the power output of the turbine took place quite early--there is a description of a simple steam turbine dating to 120 B.C.--but remained inconsequential until the mid-19th century, when the development of the steam turbine for industrial purposes...