170 
POPULAK SCIENCE EEYIEW. 
been adopted, we can only describe the more important plans 
of action which have been used or suggested. 
A torpedo may be briefly described as a waterproof case of 
gunpowder, or some similar explosive, so arranged as to be fired 
close to a hostile vessel, with the object of sinking her. They 
may be at once divided into two great classes — stationary 
torpedoes, which are fixed at one spot and fired on the enemy’s 
touching or approaching them, and locomotive torpedoes, which 
are either propelled against a ship by some mechanical contriv- 
ance or allowed to drift with the current. It would be difi&cult 
to say when or by whom torpedoes were first used ; certain it is 
that the original idea must be an old one, for drifting fireships 
were employed at a very early date, and gunpowder could not be 
long invented before some one would think of making a fireship 
into a floating mine. The first attempts in this method of 
attack were of the rudest kind. Nearly a hundred years ago, in 
1778, the Americans used drifting torpedoes against the English 
fleet in the Delaware. The plan adopted was to fill small kegs 
with gunpowder, and place in them a gunlock, so arranged that 
the collision with a ship’s side would bring down the hammer 
and explode the charge. “Bushnell, ” says Fenimore Cooper, 
made several unsuccessful attempts to blow up the ships of the 
enemy by means of torpedoes, a species of warfare which it can 
hardly be regretted has so uniformly failed.” * This was written 
in 1839, and up to that time it might be said with truth that 
torpedo warfare was an utter failure. But men worked on, 
improvements were suggested, new plans were invented, but still 
it seemed almost impossible to construct anything like a safe 
and at the same time efficient torpedo. In the Crimean war the 
Russians used drifting torpedoes against the allied fleets in the 
Baltic. Many of these were exploded mechanically by coming in 
contact with French and English men-of-war, but the charges 
were so small that no serious damage was done by them, and 
more than one which failed to explode was picked up and found 
to be quite incapable of doing harm, because the men employed 
to place it in the water had neglected to put the firing apparatus 
in working order by withdrawing the safety key, lest they should 
themselves be destroyed by an accidental explosion. Indeed the 
great defect of any torpedo fired in this way is the peril to which 
it subjects all who have to handle it, as any rough usage would 
ignite the charge, and moreover when once it is set adrift 
it is dangerous alike to friend and foe. 
It was in the civil war in America that torpedoes were first 
used to any great extent, and for the first time were really suc- 
cessful. The Confederates, in particular, were very active in this 
* History of the Navy of the United States of America/ vol. i. p. 157. 
