Popular Science Monthly 



TORPEDO CONTROL ,LENo 

 SE. CELLS , ,/^ 



NION I W < < — 



\ 



SCREEN- 



^U-X^OTOR 



\ 



IS 



iC 



'■'^-^ ^ o.^^ r^ntyrynnr^ry n n n 



^ 



P 



-.■y -, nnn n i 



SE^CELLS , 

 LENS^ 



y---^- 



ORIENTATOR FOR TORPEDO DIRECTOR 



As a human being, you have the power of running toward the thing that you see. You have eyes 

 — organs sensitive to light. Suppose a torpedo had eyes. Suppose that it were given the power 



A Torpedo with Eyes 



By Walter Bannard 



SUPPOSE we have at our command 

 torpedoes that obey the orders of a 

 single master ; torpedoes that heed 

 faithfully the wish of an operator ex- 

 pressed through a simple directing ap- 

 paratus; torpedoes that can be projected 

 six or eight miles through the water, be- 

 ing constantly under the control of the 

 man and his machine on shore ; in a 

 word, torpedoes which carry out the in- 

 tention of one man to destroy an oncom- 

 ing vessel of the enemy. This torpedo 

 would simply be the projection mechan- 

 ically, of this man's will to destroy that 

 vessel. 



Theoretically, we have the materials 



at hand to render this achievement pos- 

 sible. In fact, the "light-directed tor- 

 pedo," as it is called, is virtually on the 

 threshold of reality, but it has not yet 

 crossed the threshold. This delay is 

 caused by the present unreliability of a 

 chemical substance, selenium, and it is 

 upon selenium that the eventual success 

 of the light-directed torpedo depends. In 

 an article on the Hammond electric dog, 

 appearing elsewhere in this issue, will 

 be found an explanation of the way in 

 which selenium does the work. 



A boat has been directed wirelessly 

 from shore — most all of us have read of 

 that — and a boat can be directed by wire- 



