TORPEDO 



5841 



TORPEDO 



THE STORY OF TORPEDOES 



ORPEDO, an underwater weapon used 

 in naval warfare for the purpose of destroying 

 enemy vessels.- Its name is derived from the 

 Latin torpere, meaning to be asleep, or numb, 

 and is an ironic reference to the "putting to 

 sleep" of an opponent. In several wars within 

 recent years the effectiveness of torpedoes has 

 been demonstrated, but never before with such 

 dreadful and deadly certainty as in the War of 

 the Nations, which began in 1914. It was the 

 crudest weapon of that war, and to meet the 

 demands for an instrument of the highest effi- 

 ciency it was improved within two years by 

 the German naval establishment from a com- 

 paratively small, though powerful, device to an 

 undersea terror which weighs a ton and a half; 

 in its evolution the cost rose from about $3,000 

 to over $8,000 for the largest sizes. When con- 

 sidered from the viewpoint of dimensions, it is 

 the most complicated and the costliest piece of 

 mechanism ever devised to kill men and to de- 

 stroy property. 



The Wonders of the Invention. The inven- 

 tive genius of man would seem to have reached 

 the apex of achievement in the torpedo of the 

 present day. At a depth of eight or ten feet 

 below the surface of the ocean it travels as fast 

 as the speed of a passenger train, and this re- 

 quires a powerful engine, or motor, intricate in 

 detail. If it sinks too low in the water it will 

 pass harmlessly beneath its target; if it rises 

 so high that it advances along on the surface 

 much of its force on explosion is lost into the 

 air. It must therefore possess mechanical 

 means of maintaining a certain level. It must 

 also be so constructed that it will keep a 

 straight course ahead and not be deflected from 

 it; this is accomplished by means of a gyro- 

 scope, which will bring it back to its course. In 

 the head of the torpedo there must be an ex- 

 plosive charge powerful enough to tear a hole 

 in the massive steel sides of great merchant 

 vessels or of the mightiest warships. 



When these necessary elements are consid- 

 ered, it is evident that a modern topedo is an 

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oddly-formed ship which conducts itself with 

 almost human intelligence, and which runs it- 

 self, stabilizes itself and guides itself, but with- 

 out the touch of man after he has dispatched it 

 on its mission. 



The most powerful type of torpedo is the 

 Whitehead, and this is the one which has been 

 very generally adopted by all navies. It is 

 about twenty-two inches in diameter and is 

 twenty feet long. It is a harmless-looking, 

 spindle-shaped tube of thin steel, with a. tail, 

 but with nothing to suggest the wonderful 

 mechanism and deadly explosive inside of it. 



How It Is Operated. Most torpedoes are pro- 

 pelled by compressed-air engines;" some have 

 been equipped with electric motors, although of 

 the latter variety very few have been made. 



There are several compartments in a torpedo, 

 and they screw into each other and form one 

 rigid shell. At the front is the deadly section 

 of the whole device. All after parts are there 

 only to propel the tip of the torpedo against 

 its distant target. The charge cone of the 

 early models held only about fifteen pounds of 

 explosive, but the present models sometimes 

 contain 250 pounds of it. Guncotton is nearly 

 always used, in a moist state. The fuse which 

 ignites the explosive is connected with a tube 

 of dry guncotton. The instant the plunger at 

 the tip of the torpedo strikes a solid object it 

 explodes the charge. 



Back of the charge of explosive is a compart- 

 ment containing compressed air; it has a ca- 

 pacity varying from 10,000 to 20,000 cubic feet 

 enough to provide motive power to send the 

 torpedo six miles. The next chamber contains 

 the machinery the large motor which operates 

 the screws, or propellers, and a smaller motor 

 which controls the depth rudders. This cham- 

 ber is the only one which is not water-tight; it 

 is pierced with small holes to admit water, and 

 this keeps the engine cool. In the rear com- 

 partment is the gyroscope, without which not 

 one torpedo in a dozen would hit its mark, for 

 it keeps the instrument of death straight ahead 



