SCIE 



lEntered at the Post-Offlce of New York, N.Y., as Second-Class Matter.] 



A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



Seventh Year. 

 Vol. XIV. No. 352. 



NEW YORK, November i, li 



Single Copies, Ten Cents. 

 J3.50 Per Year, in Advanck. 



THE HALPINE TORPEDO-BOAT. 



The object in this invention is to provide a small vessel, if we 

 may call it such, that can be steered electrically from the shore or 

 from a war-vessel, and capable of carrying a torpedo that shall be 

 thrown out on the boats touching any obstruction, such as a ship's 

 side, and then discharged ; the boat, however, first automatically 

 backing away from the torpedo, so as to be at a safe distance when 

 the explosion takes place. 



The necessity for doing this by some small contrivance is that it 



vented years ago. In this torpedo, motive and steering apparatus 

 were provided, to be operated in various ways, but in the end to be 

 controlled electrically from the starting station, whether on shore 

 or shipboard. Some torpedoes of this design worked fairly well, 

 but the explosion involved the destruction of apparatus costing 

 thousands of dollars, so that practical experiments were few. 



The Halpine torpedo-boat is a fish torpedo, which, after leaving 

 its torpedo in any desired position, remains a fish, and runs away, 

 so that when the explosion occurs it may be at a safe distance. 



This plan is credited to Lieut. Nicholas J. Halpine of the United 



THE HALPINE-SAVAGE TOPEDO-BOAT. 



miy be as inconspicuous as passible, and that it may furnish a 

 small target for an enemy's guns. This last point is not of so 

 much importance, however, since the modern machine-guns can 

 pepper the surface of the water with shot to such an extent that 

 no torpedo craft is likely to escape destruction if seen. These very 

 machine-guns make the use of the so-called torpedo-boats ex- 

 tremely hazardous, and, some would have us believe, entirely un- 

 serviceable. Even at night the search-lights would detect their 

 approach, when the guns would make quick work of them. 



To avoid this difficulty of approach, the fish torpedo was in- 



states Navy. But just as the plans of the lieutenant were about 

 to materialize, he received orders to join the " Tallapoosa " in South 

 American waters. It thus happened that the further carrying-out 

 of the scheme devolved on Mr. Arthur \V. Savage, the inventor of 

 improved small arms. In some of the electrical work Mr. Savage 

 was assisted by Mr. Frank A. Perret of Brooklyn, to whom we had 

 occasion to refer not long since as the inventor of the Perret 

 motor. 



Our illustration shows the boat on shore. In the cigar-shaped 

 hull are contained storage-batteries capable of driving the electric 



