NEW TORPEDO.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 1 November 1924, Page 13

NEW TORPEDO.

ADMIRALTY TESTS. MYSTERY PARTY. A successful test of a new magnetic torpedo, is one outcome of investigations of a party of special service officers of the British Admiralty at Jervis Bay, Sydney. , For seven months the party has been working in strictest secrecy, and periodically one of the Australian warships had gone to Jervi s Bay to assist in the work. At first the manoeuvres required of the • vessel puzzled those on board, but it has transpired recently that one of important aims of the party is to test a new magnetic torpedo. ! ' ' First the cruiser was; ordered to steam over a loop of electric cable laid on the floor of Jervis Bay, and the effect of the ship’s magnetism was observed by the deflection of a galvanometer ashore. Then she served as a target for the new torpedo, carefully adjusted to °ass well under the keel. But instead of being loaded with gun-cotton, the torpedo contained nothing more harmless than tennis balls. When it entered the magnetic area of the ship, these tennis balls, by the action, of the vessel’s magnetism, were released and rose to the surface, thus proving the practicability of the invention. Its advantages are obvious. With such a torpedo it is not necessary to score a direct hit. as the charge “will explode within the magnetic area of the ship. If it goes wide of th« mark, it can be recovered, with a resultant saving of about £2OOO