Does the tesla turbine run on gas?

[allcanadian]

I believe Tesla's turbine was intended to operate like a gas turbine, He patented a mechanism refered to as a "valveular conduit" which has no moving parts but acts like a check valve ---- having one way flow. This valveular conduit would be combined with a gas burner on the input to his turbine producing a high output engine with one moving part.Tesla mentions water injection to cool the hot gases to prevent warping of the turbine disks. The machine itself would then act very similar to a valveless pulsejet engine only very much more efficient and having none of the issues of blade erosion found in present gas turbines. What everyone has completely overlooked is one simple fact--- the input was pulsed--- a slug of gas and air would ignite pressurizing the turbine input instantly which would destroy "normal" turbine blading but not teslas turbine, a pulse of water would then be injected at the input condensing the remaining gases rapidly and sucking in a new charge of gas and air through the valveular conduit. There is no turbine other than Teslas bladeless turbine which could handle these extremes of changing accelerations, none!

[Gearhead]

The web is full of turbine enthusiasts that have built bladed jet turbines that run.  There is not a single Tesla gas turbine on the web that is able to drive its own compressor stage to run.  Blades work on the same principle as wings.  Airplanes could not fly if lift from the wings was not an order of magnitude better than the drag. As simple as Tesla's turbine is it has been relegated to special purposes only. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PdzaYwgQBE&feature=related 

[zerotensor]

I know that these have been used "in reverse", driving the turbine with a motor or other mechanical input so that the machine acts as a pump.  One application is a high-powered "water cannon" used for excavation.