ORIGIN OF THE TORPEDO.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXXXI, Issue 4, 17 January 1905, Page 7

ORIGIN OF THE TORPEDO.

.Was First Designed in Sichmond, j, „ Va., and Used in the Civil War. jy. •Writing to the Richmond ( Va.) TimesDispatch, Col. Richard- L. Maury, a son of Commodore Matthew Fontaine Maury, of the confederate navy, describes the manufacture t>y his father of torpedoes, which, he says, had their origin in Virginia, were designed in Richmond, and were first successfully used ih the waters of the James river. Commodore Maury's trial experiments to explode under water were made with minute charges of powder, and sub- j merged in an. ordinary washtub. in his chamber at the house of his cousin, Robert ii. Maury, on Clay street, Richmond, | and the tank for actual use, with the triggers for explosion and other mechanical appliances for service, was made by Talbott &:Sbn, on Cary.'street. "In the early summer of 186]," says Col. Maury, "the secretary of the havy_ and the' chairman of the naval committee of: congress, and others, were invited to witness an explosion, in James river at Rocketts. The torpedo was a small keg of powder, weighted to sink, fitted .with a trigger to explode by percussion , \<o be fired, when in place, 1 with a laniard. The- Patrick Henry gig was borrowed; Capt. Maury (as he then was) and the writer got aboard with the torpedo, and were, rowed to the middle of the charihel, just opposite where the wharf of the James River Steamboat '! company now is, whereon the spectators stood; the torpedo was carefully low- j ©red tb the bottom, taking great care' not to strain upon th? trigger, whir-h wr.rln full cock, the Isr.yard Icosely held or . board: The~"boat pulled clear and the writer pulled the lanyard. The expl osior was instantaneous; up went a column of water 15 or 20 feet; many stunned or, dead -fish floated around; the offiTMais or the wharf applauded and were convinced . andi^'shortly after a naval bureau o: "coast, harbor, and riyer'defense'Vtjva - created, and C.apt. Maury placed at if s . '.head,- with abundant furids for the work, and the very* best of intelligent, able and zealous younger naval officers for, assistants.' ' ' *