1571-1640

Italian physicist who provided the first known description of a steam turbine. In 1629, Branca published La Machine, a gazette of machinery that included 77 woodcuts illustrating various types of equipment. Among those depicted was a steam turbine, along with Branca's notes describing the means for turning a wheel by shooting jets of steam against vanes attached to the outer rim of the wheel. At the end of a turbine shaft were pestles for pounding materials.