THE LAST WORD IN TORPEDO BOATS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2481, 17 May 1909, Page 7

THE LAST WORD IN TORPEDO BOATS.

(By Hudson Maxim.)

During the last ten years I have conducted a large number of experiments at a cost of more than £IO,OOO in the development and demonstration o£ a system £or the propulsion of automobile torpedoes and torpedo boats by energy derived from the products of combustion of a self-combustiv© fuel called motorite, consisting of 70 per cent of nitro-glycerme and 30 per cent of guncotton. The guncotton is gelatined by the nitro-glycerme, forming a dense, tough, and rubbery material. This material is made into bars about seven inches in diameter and six feet long, for use in torpedoes the size of the 18in. Whitehead torpedo. For the 21in. torpedo the stick will be both bigger and longer. The motorite bars are forced into and sealed in steel tubes for use and these steel tubes, containing the motorite, are inserted), into the torpedo and surrounded by a wat'er-jackfet. The motorite can le ignited and can burn only at and from one end, and water is forced through the water jacket into the combustion chamber, to be evaporated by the flame blast forcing the water along with it through an atomising device, whereby it is instantly converted into steam, and the combined steam and products" of combustion form the motive fluid. The water will be taken in from the sea as required, so that it will not be necessary to carry the water supply on board the torpedo. One pound of motorite evaporates a little over two pounds of water, so that one pound of motorite produces the equivalent of three pounds of steam, for the products of combustion of the motorite mingle with the steam produced. The steam from the combustion chamber is conducted to turbines, or other engines or devices for propelling the torpedo through the water. By means of this system of propulsion, the range of the automobile torpedo can easily be doubled, while at the same time its speed can be increased fifty per cent. The heavy air flask will be done away with and will be replaced by a shell merely strong enough and heavy enough for structural rigidity. This will enable the carrying of one hundred and sixty pounds of motorite in place of the one hundred and thirty pounds of air now carried, and as each pound of motorite will evaporate two pounds of water, we have available four hundred and eighty pounds of motive fluid; and as steam and products of combustion of motorite are much more efficient as a motive fluid per unit of weight than compressed air, it is safe to assume that we have available four times the energy now available in the eighteen-inch torpedo. Instead of carrying but two hundred pounds of wet guncotton —the present charge—we should be able to carry three hundred pounds of maximite, which is practically twice as powerful per unit of weight as guncotton, while its density is fifty per cent, greater than that of guncotton, so that we should have a warhead easily three times as powerful as the present warhead.

The thing most needed ’at the present time is a torpedo boat capable of passing unscathed through the fire of quick-firing guns of a battleship in order to get near enough to reach her with certainty with torpedoes carrying a sufficient quantity of high explosives in the warhead l to ensure her destruction when hit.

It is a recognised truism in the field of invention that when there is a very strong demand for anything against which there is no physical law barring its accomplishment, it is sooner or later sure to be accomplished. There is an enormous demand for a system for reaching and torpedoing battleships with destructive quantities of high explosives. lam strongly of the opinion that the most effectual way of accomplishing the result is to construct a torpedo boat in the following manner; Build the hull of the boat somewhat on the lines of the cigar-sliaped automobile torpedo —even a perfect counterpart of the torpedo in shape would serve the purpose well, but I would suggest a little greater vertical than longitudinal diameter. In other words, I would build the boat a little more fish-shaped than the torpedo, and I would construct it so that it would bo adapted to travel both upon the surface of the water and in a semi-submerged position, or, rather, in a nearly submerged position. , I would drive the boat with gasoline engines under normal conditions, and when ■going into action—that is to say, in making the run of attack—the boat would be in its nearly submerged position and would bo driven by the combined power of the gasoline engines and motorite. The gasoline engines will be provided with a shift gear, something like that employed on automobiles, so that under normal conditions, that is to say, when the boat is propelled along the surface of the water by the gasoline engines alone, the propellers will be driven at a lower speed, and a speed adapted to the speed of the boat thereby secured, but when going into action in a submerged position, and travelling at possibly double the speed, the gear will be shifted so that the propellers will travel at a speed commensurate with the higher speed of the torpedo boat. * The boat will be provided with a top keel or fin a little thicker than a man’s body across the shoulders at the rearward cud, being narrowed 1 down forward, and a counter tower large enough for a man to stand in erect.

The front end of the superstructure will be sharp, and water will be thrown to right and left and will not obscure the forward view of the occupant of . the conning tower. The superstructure will be subdivided into small compartments, filled with cellulose. The partitions between the compartments will be thin sheet metal. It will be extremely difficult to hit either the superstructure or the coming tower, even with small quick-firing guns, for the conning tower will not be more tban two feet above the surface of the water, and will not exceed three feet in diameter, and will be moving forward at the rate of from forty to sixty miles an hour. •

Of course, it will require stupendous energy to propel a submarine boat through the water at so high a rate of speed, and there is nothing available known to mo except motorito which can supply the required energy. With inotorite, however, wo have easily all the* energy that may be required for any desired rate of speed until the motorito be entirely consumed. The Whitehead 1 torpedo is in reality a sort of submarine torpedo boat and what is true of it also holds true of the torpedo boat I propose. Of course, the keel and superstructure in the boat I propose would otfer additional resistance, but, on account of the larger size of the boat and its greater length and the enormous quantity of motorite that may be carried, we shall have available more than enough energy to make up for the increased resistance. The boat will carry, say, a couple of torpedoes in the prow and launch them when getting within close range of a warship. These torpedoes should each carry at least five hundred pounds of high explosive. It would be better if they carried half a ton each in the warhead.

The cost of the torpedo boat will be slight compared with the destruction it can work. Besides, there need be only two men on board and the lives of but two men will be endangered anyway, and notwithstanding the danger to the men making such an attack, even though the chance of being killed were to be one in two, or even more, there will be no lack of volunteers for the job.