Whitehead torpedo

The Whitehead torpedo was the first self-propelled or "locomotive" torpedo ever developed. It was perfected in 1866 by Robert Whitehead from a design conceived by Giovanni Luppis of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. It was driven by a three-cylinder compressed air engine invented designed and made by Peter Brotherhood. Many naval services procured the Whitehead torpedo during the 1870s, including the US Navy. This early torpedo proved itself in combat during the Russo-Turkish War when, on January 16, 1878, the Turkish ship Intibah was sunk by Russian torpedo boats carrying Whiteheads.

The term "torpedo" comes from the Torpedo fish, which is a type of ray that delivers an electric shock to stun its prey.

History

During the 19th century, an anonymous officer of the Austrian Marine Artillery conceived the idea of using a small boat laden with explosives, propelled by a steam or an air engine and steered by cables to be used against enemy ships; his papers came into the possession of Captain Giovanni Luppis upon his death. Luppis had a model of the device built; it was powered by a spring-driven clockwork mechanism and steered remotely by cables from land. Dissatisfied with the device, which he called the "coast-saver", Luppis turned to Robert Whitehead, who then worked for Stabilimento Tecnico Fiumano, a factory in Fiume, Austria. In about 1850 the Austrian Navy asked Whitehead to develop this design into a self-propelled underwater torpedo.

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.