John Barber

John Barber (1734–1793) was an English coal viewer and inventor. He was born at Greasley Castle Farm, Nottinghamshire, to parents from both sides of the coalmining partnership of Barber and Fletcher. Barber was trained by his uncle, John Fletcher, as a coalmaster, and moved to Warwickshire in 1762 to manage his childless uncle's collieries in the Nuneaton area. The same John Barber is thought to be the inventor named in several patents granted between 1766 and 1792. The most remarkable of these patents was for a gas turbine. Although nothing practical came out of this patent, Barber is recognised as the first person to describe the working principle of a constant pressure gas turbine.

Barber's turbine was designed to burn producer gas obtained from wood, coal, oil, or other substances, heated in a retort or producer, from where the gases were conveyed into a receiver and cooled. Air and gas were then to be compressed in different cylinders and discharged into an exploder (combustion chamber) where they were ignited, the mixture of hot gas then being played against the vanes of a paddle wheel. Water was to be injected into the explosive mixture to cool the mouth of the chamber and, by producing steam, to increase the volume of the charge.

In the same year that Brown, Boveri & Cie commissioned the Neuchâtel gas turbine the company published an article on the history of gas turbines which acknowledged John Barber's patent.