TORPEDO WARFARE. 325 



MECHANICS AND ENGINEERING. 



TORPEDO WARFARE. 



COMPILED BY THE EDITOE. 



The magnitude to which this once universally contemned system of 

 naval warfare has attained recently, renders it important to the general reader 

 that the whole subject be condensed into a single article, which has been 

 attempted in this chapter. 



The earliest siibmarine machine for blowing up ships, of which we can 

 find any account, was invented in 1776, by David Bushnell of Connecticut 

 who called it the torpedo or "American turtle," from its peculiar shape, and 

 was designed to destroy the British shipping during the Eevolutionary war. 

 In 1805 Eobert Fulton designed torpedoes on a somewhat similar plan, which 

 were also employed for the destruction of British vessels during the war of 

 1812. In 1854 the Eussians employed torpedoes in the Baltic Sea during 

 the Crimean war, and during the American rebellion of 1861 they were fre- 

 quently used on both sides. 



Until a very recent period but two classes of torpedoes have been used, 

 viz : Those self-explosive upon contact with the attacki'd vessel, and those 

 dependent for exlposion upon an electric current supplied from the shore; 

 and it may be added that until very recently their use has been followed by 

 very meagre and unsatisfactory results. 



The government of the United States, however, within a few years past, 

 has devoted much time and expended large sums of money in improving and 

 perfecting the topedo system, and since the outbreak of the war between 

 Eussia and Turkey the subject has received far more attention than ever 

 before from all nations. The inventors of England and France in particular 

 have expended a vast amount of ingenuity upon such machines. The result 

 of all this is a development of submarine warfare to an extent which seems 

 about to offset thp value and importance which has hitherto been set upon 

 immense guns and steel-plated armors for ships of war. Torpedoes have 

 been contrived to meet pretty much all the requirements of naval warfare, 

 and may be classed as follows : Harbor torpedoes. Spar torpedoes, Harvey 

 (towing) torpedoes, Whitehead (fish) torpedoes and the Lay torpedo. 



"The Harbor torpedo is a sort of sunken mine, exploding either by contact 

 or electricity. If these are judiciously laid down around a harbor or anchor- 

 age, the approach of hostile ships will be rendered impracticable, provided 

 always they are protected by shore batteries or armed ships to prevent re- 

 moval. Every channel may be barred by these hidden mines, and they may 

 'be made so powerful that any ship under which they explode is sure to 

 become hopelessly disabled. They are fastened to and held in their posi- 



