The Segner wheel, also called a Segner turbine, is a type of water turbine invented by Johann Andreas Segner in the 18th century, working on the same reaction principle as the ancient aeolipile attributed to Hero of Alexandria. Water is fed into a vertical cylinder set in a ground-level pit, where a rotor fitted with angled pipes and nozzles sits at the base; the pressure of water forced through the nozzles spins the rotor, and a belt-and-pulley system carries that rotation out to drive machinery. Segner wheels were historically used to power the inclined-plane boat lifts of New Jersey's Morris Canal in the 1850s, and the same reaction principle survives today in the ordinary rotating lawn or irrigation sprinkler.
Facts
Technology TypeAn early reaction-type water turbine: a rotating vessel that expels water through bent nozzle pipes, the reaction force driving its rotation. 1 Invented Year Classification
MaturityTRL 3: Experimental Proof of Concept 1 Sources
1. Energy Encyclopedia
Energy EncyclopediaThe Segner Wheel, Johann Andreas Segner biography paragraph
In 1750 he published works describing his hydraulic reaction wheel.
The Segner Wheel, mechanism paragraph
The whole design is basically a cylindrical vessel filled with water with several pipes at the bottom, stretching radially outwards, with nozzles on the ends that are all bent in the same direction. As water flows through the vessel and exits through the nozzles, the reaction force causes the vessel to rotate in the direction opposite to the exiting water jets.
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