Magazine content is available exclusively for TIME subscribers.Science: Power with Quicksilver
A vision and experiment for 30 years, the mercury-vapor turbine is now finally developed to a point where it may yield the 50% or more increase in power-producing efficiency which has long been hoped from it. For three General Electric engineers (in papers recently published by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers) report that the known faults of mercury-vapor engines have at last been conquered.
The most efficient steam turbine in the U.S. (TIME, Nov. 24) converts about 33% of its fuel's heat into energy. Reason: most of the heat must always be transferred...
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