It was designed and constructed by Brown, Boveri & Cie and installed in 1939 at the municipal power station in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

[1][2][3] Brown, Boveri & Cie (BBC) first became involved with gas turbines when they began building turbo-compressors in collaboration with the French industrialist Auguste Rateau.

[2] In 1936, BBC built the world’s first constant flow industrial gas turbine for the Sun Oil refinery in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania.

[1] In the late 1930s, heavily protected emergency power generators were being ordered by utilities across Europe to ensure continued electrical supplies in the event of aerial bombardment.

The key concerns for this application were limited space and fast starting times rather than efficiency, which suited the early open cycle gas turbines.