Robert Whitehead
Robert Whitehead (3 January 1823 – 14 November 1905) was an English engineer, most famous for developing the first effective self-propelled naval torpedo.
Early life
He was born the son of a cotton-bleacher, in Bolton, England. He trained as an engineer and draughtsman, and attended the Mechanics Institute in Manchester.
His first professional employment was at a shipyard in Toulon, France, for Philip Taylor & Sons, and then as a consultant engineer in Milan, Italy. He then moved to Trieste, on the Adriatic coast of Austria.
Whitehead's work in Trieste was noticed by the owners of Fonderia Metalli, a metal foundry in the nearby city of Fiume (today Rijeka, Croatia). In 1856, Whitehead became manager of the company, and changed its name to Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume (STF). STF produced marine steam boilers and engines, which were the most modern products of that era. The Austrian Navy was a customer.
Meeting Luppis
In the early 1860s, Whitehead met engineer Giovanni Luppis, who had recently retired to Trieste from the Austrian Navy. Luppis had produced the first prototypes of a self-propelled torpedo in 1860, which he called the "coast saviour" (Italian: Salvacoste) (Croatian: Spasilac obale). Luppis' device was a low-profile surface boat, propelled by compressed air, and controlled by ropes from the land. Whitehead and Luppis formed a partnership to perfect the torpedo as an effective weapon.
Robert Whitehead (theatre producer)
Robert Whitehead (born Montreal, QuebecMarch 3, 1916; died Pound Ridge, New York June 15, 2002) was a Canadian theatre producer.
His first production was Medea, starring Judith Anderson and John Gielgud, and he won the Outer Critics Circle Award five times. He was nominated for 19 Tony and Drama Desk Awards, winning 4 Tony Awards and 5 Drama Desk Awards.
His father owned textile mills, and his mother, Selena Mary LaBatt Whitehead, was an opera singer. (The actor Hume Cronyn was Whitehead's cousin on the LaBatt side.)
He went to Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario, then worked as a commercial photographer before studying acting at the New York School of the Theatre.
He spent the Second World War years as an ambulance driver in North Africa and Italy.
Whitehead had a long term association with fellow producer Roger L. Stevens. In 1964 the Lincoln Center Repertory Theatre opened with Robert Whitehead and Elia Kazan as its heads and Harold Clurman as literary adviser.
Robert Whitehead (disambiguation)
Robert Whitehead (1823–1905) was an English engineer and entrepreneur who built the first modern torpedo.
Robert Whitehead may also refer to:
Robert Whitehead (Derbyshire)
Robert Whitehead (1856 to 1938) was an English land owner, businessman and Justice of the Peace (1915-1916). He was chairman or director of many business in the area including Cammell Laird shipbuilders, Brodsworth Colliery Staverly Coal and Iron Company and Leeds Forge Company Ltd and many more. He was the 2nd cousin to the Robert Whitehead who invented the torpedo and great-great Grandson of John Kay who invented the Flying Shuttle.
In 1901 he took over the Hargate Estate, near the village of Wormhill, Derbyshire, where he lived until he died in 1938. He added massively to the estate which by 1910 comprised Hargate Wall, Hargate Hall, a lodge house, stables and huge centrally heated orangery. Hargate Wall and Hargate Hall actually swapped names. Robert Whitehead lived in the original Hargate Hall while Hargate Wall was being built. When it was completed he moved into it but renamed it Hargate Hall and his original house then became Hargate Wall.
A previous occupant of Hargate Hall was the notorious mill owner Ellis Needham who owned Litton Mill.
