At Birr Castle in Ireland, William Parsons, third earl of Rosse, built a telescope far surpassing any of its predecessors – an instrument with a 6ft-diameter speculum that would acquire notoriety as the Leviathan of Parstonstown. Read more...
The capacity to generate electricity on a vast scale can be traced back to 1884, when Charles Parsons patented the compound steam turbine. Although 2014 marks its 130th anniversary, Parsons’s turbine design is still used across the globe. Read more...
The diminutive Turbinia was the first vessel to be powered by Charles Parsons’s steam turbines. She caused a sensation in June 1897 by ‘gatecrashing’ the Royal Navy Review at Spithead, held to mark the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria. Read more...
After the First World War, when women over 30 won the vote, Rachel and Katharine Parsons founded the Women’s Engineering Society, an organization that still flourishes today, and created an engineering firm employing only women. Read more...