During Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897, the British engineer and inventor Charles Algernon Parsons found a novel way to publicize his newly devised steam turbine (developed to drive generators to produce electricity). During a stately review of the Royal forces, Parsons' turbine-powered ship, the Turbinia, doing 35-knots with scarcely any vibration or noise, suddenly skimmed past the Royal Navy!

[Parson's demonstration prompted the construction of several turbine-powered warships.]