38 



NATURE 



\_May 17, 1877 



The influence of the Whitehead torpedo, of which we 

 have heard so much of late, will likewise be felt for the 

 first time during the present war. An implement so 

 ingenious in its character that, as Lord Charles Ucres- 

 ford the other day happily remarked, it can do almost 

 anything but talk, is in the possession of both belli- 

 gerents, and will doubtless be heard of ere long on the 

 Danube and in the Black Sea. These torpedoes are 

 manufactured at Fiume on the Mediterranean, and, like 

 Krupp guns, are to be purchased by any one who chooses 

 to pay for them. 



The ISritish Government manufactures its own White- 

 head torpedoes in this country, having paid several 

 thousands of pounds for the privilege. The machinery 

 inside this torpedo is still a secret, which is strictly main- 

 tained by our Government, but the principle of the inven- 

 tion is well known. It is a long cigar-shaped machine 

 measuring a dozen feet and upwards. In the head is a 

 charge of some violent explosive, such as gun-cotton, or 

 dynamite, which explodes as soon as the torpedo strikes 

 an obstacle. The motive power is compressed air, which 

 is forced into the machine by powerful air-pumps, imme- 

 diately before the torpedo is discharged into the sea, no 

 less than 600 lbs. on the square inch being the pressure 

 exerted. The Whitehead is shot from a tube, and moves 

 through the water as straight as a dart, the compressed 

 air working upon a screw in the tail of the machine. The 

 delicate machinery permits the torpedo to swim at any 

 depth below the surface that maybe desirable, and it flies 

 straight in the direction it is aimed, at a speed of something 

 like twenty miles an hour. If it fails to strike the foe, 

 then the intelligent apparatus at once rises to the surface, 

 becoming innocuous as it does so, and may in this condi- 

 tion be captured without difficulty. 



A torpedo of this sort striking the sides of an ironclad 

 would almost infallibly send her to the bottom, and 

 although it has been proved that a network or crinoline 

 around the ship is capable of retarding the progress of a 

 " fish " of this nature, and exploding the same harmlessly 

 in its toils, it is obviously a very difficult matter thus 

 to protect one's craft. Against heavy torpedoes, indeed, 

 there seems no way of defence at all (the Whitehead 

 generally carries a charge of 70 lb. or 80 lb., but moored 

 torpedoes may contain a 500 lb. charge), and therefore 

 Turkish vessels will have to give Russian ports a wide 

 berth. All must remember how the magnificent fleet of 

 the French was kept at bay by the torpedoes of the 

 Germans in the North Sea in 1870, and the IJlack Sea 

 ports are no doubt similarly protected. So demoralising 

 is the dread of the torpedo with sailors apparently, that 

 they will dare anything rather than venture into waters 

 which conceal these cruel foes. 



H. Baden PRriciiARD 



THE OWENS COLLEGE UNIVERSITY 

 QUESTION 



IN his address on Tuesday last week, at the London 

 University, the Chancellor noticed in dignified 

 and sensible words the proposed application of Owens 

 College to the Government for a Charter of Incorporation 

 as a university, either by itself, or as the centre of a 

 family of northern colleges. Nothing could well have 



been more unfortunate or ill-judged than the furious 

 onslaught of Mr. Lowe, the member for the LTniversity, 

 in the Foiinighlly Ri-vicw. The complaint of the Man- 

 chester people is that the London system, however suitable 

 in itself, hampers the educational activity and usefulness 

 of institutions capable of an independent existence, and it 

 was scarcely decent for the member for that university 

 to step forward in her interests as a mere partisan of the 

 stains quo. In fact there is no antagonism. Manchester 

 has never denied that it is a good thing that there should 

 be a university in London to examine all comers. She 

 has said that she thinks it a bad thing for institutions 

 with a sufficient permanent teaching staff, a large enough 

 number of students and a solid establishment in the dis- 

 trict to which they belong, to have to shape their work 

 according to the ideas of any central university that must 

 suit all comers. Mr. Lowe is the one member of Parliament 

 who should have held his tongue on the matter till he was 

 forced to speak, because a hasty utterance on his part 

 could not but seem to compromise his University. Lord. 

 Granville took pains to remove the injurious impression of 

 an unworthy jealousy in London which Mr. Lowe's article 

 could scarcely fail to create. He tells us that London feels 

 " absolutely no objections of a merely jealous character," 

 and that London would have a " very friendly feeling to any 

 university which, after due deliberation and with a sound 

 regard to the real advantages of education, may hereafter 

 be established." In that wise and sensible attitude it is 

 open to the University to consider either of the two 

 schemes suggested for the northern univcriity. The first 

 of them, which is that favoured by the college authorities, 

 is that Manchester should be created a university much 

 as Glasgow is. According to the views of the supporters 

 of that scheme we should be prepared to multiply our 

 universities as the Scotch have done, by chartering 

 one in any large town where its students and its en- 

 dowments, its history and its reputation offer equally 

 solid guarantees of permanence. The other is that 

 Manchester should be the capital — pyiiniis inter pares — 

 of a new northern university on the original affihation 

 basis from which London has departed. The weakness 

 of the affiliation principle is that it is scarcely in nature 

 that it should not gradually relax, so that colleges should 

 be affiliated on easier and easier conditions till it becomes 

 useless to keep up the farce. But both schemes, the 

 latter of uhich, indeed, is Dr. Carpenter's, are practicable 

 — both worthy of careful consideraticu and discussion — 

 and it is pleasant to see that the University of London, 

 through her Chancellor, disavows any settled policy of 

 obstruction. 



Lord Granville reminded his hearers of what most 

 people have forgotten — the history of the incorporation of 

 the University. It was a subject of excited debate in this 

 country and in Parliament, for ten years from its first 

 inception. The project was started in 1825. Funds were 

 then raised by subscriptions in 100/. "shares, and the insti- 

 tution was in activity in 1828. In 1S30 an application 

 was made to the Crown for a charter, and the charter as 

 prayed for had gone through nearly all the necessary pi'e- 

 liminary stages, when its progress was stayed by the 

 opposition of Oxford and Cambridge. In 1833 the appli- 

 cation was renewed, and it was supported by an address 

 to the throne from the City of London. It was opposed 



