[citation needed] After a series of other jobs including an apprenticeship on the Clyde building marine engines, a period at sea and working as an engineer in Jersey (where he installed electricity generating plant), Turner gained employment in 1897 looking after the steam generating plant at Shiplake Court near Henley-on-Thames, England.
On their return he machined and assembled them and soon showed the finished model at a local exhibition.
This coverage brought an immediate response and orders for sets of castings flooded in, and a business was established in 1898.
He was joined in the business by Alexander Frederick (Alec) Plint in 1903, who he had worked with in Jersey and was trained in electrical engineering.
They also briefly made a motorcycle and the Stuart lathe, and latterly a range of centrifugal pumps.