Types of Morgan Smith Turbines

Success Turbine Water Wheels

• The first turbine S. Morgan Smith is credited for inventing is the turbine water wheel. These wheels were composed of a number of steel turbine blades fitted in massive round frames. They generated power as rushing water fell upon the turbine blades and turned the wheels. The first successful model was installed in a local grist mill in 1877, the same year his company was officially incorporated in York, Pa. He called these first water turbine wheels "Success," or "S" turbines.

Francis Turbine

• The S. Morgan Smith Co. designed and built the highly successful all-metal Francis Turbine in the late 1800s. It was widely used for industrial hydroelectric power applications throughout the early 1900s in the United States and Canada. Its steel turbine blades were attached to heavy metal round rims on the outer edges and anchored in the middle by massive metal hubs. The whole design was enclosed in a heavy, metal housing.

Smith-Kaplan Turbine

• Smith's company purchased the patent rights to the Smith-Kaplan turbine, a highly successful European turbine design, in 1928. The company improved the design and began manufacturing it at the world headquarters in York, Pa. It resembles a ship's propeller with the turbine blades exposed rather than encased in a round frame like the company's previous turbine designs. These Smith-Kaplan turbines have been installed in mills, public utility operations and industrial plants throughout the United States and Canada.

Smith-Putnam Wind Turbine

• The Smith-Putnam wind turbine was designed in 1939 by the S. Morgan Smith Company in collaboration with Palmer Putnam, a consulting engineer who sought to provide inexpensive electricity to his Cape Cod home. The prototype model was installed on Grandpa's Knob in Castleton, Vt., in 1941. It produced electricity from wind power until 1946. It had to be taken apart due to mechanical failures that could not be fixed because of WWII steel shortages at the time.