A MARVELLOUS TORPEDO

Nelson Evening Mail, 14 May 1917, Page 7

A MARVELLOUS TORPEDO

SURPRISE PACKET FOR GERMANY It is just possible that Germany may find the American navy a staggering surprise packet (says the engineering correspondent of an English paper). In fact, they may find its preparedness and devastating powers no less astonishing than were those of the "tanks." j.t is hinted by those who should know that in the United States Naval Consulting Board, which is under the chairmanship of Mr Thomas Edison, the inventor, lies perhaps the most powerful weapon of warfare to-day. Moreover, according" to one of the foremost American publicists, "the work already done by this board and the Naval Department will very greatly decrease the submarine menace. Only a few months ago Mr Edison told me there was nonfood, reason why a vessel on the high seas should not be warned mechanically and automatically of the approach of a submarine." There is certainly great possibility in the wireless controlled torpedo and boat of Mr John Hays Hammond, jun., a joung American inventor. Considerably over a year ago it was known that the United States Government, fully convinced of the efficiency of this invention as a destructive agency, was in treaty for its sole use. Indeed, matters had progressed so far that the actual terms of exclusive use were under consideration. What this wireless dynamic torpedo means is that you can take a charge of high explosives'—up to one ton in weight —or a projectile, and deliver it under constant control from an aeroplane, another ship, or the shore, at any target as offered by a ship, destroyer, or even submarine. * The. torpedo, as described by Mr Hammond, is available in two types —one to be used above water, travelling at 50 miles an hour, and the other a, submerged type. Concerning the latter, it is entirely submerged, except for a short wireless mast virtually immune from gun-fire, and the havoc it can work on enemy submarines may be guessed from its speed of 28 miles an hour, iurther it is claimed that the surface type can actually travel as fast as__to be safe from destructive gunshot. "~ What the immense possibilities of this new war weapon are may be summarised as follows : Tt can be steered by wireless in itnv direction. Its engines (two 500 h.p. gasoline motors) can be started, stopped, and controlled at various speeds by wireless. It is more accurate, in the opinion of army experts, than the- fire of big guns. While it can be operated against an enemy by a single man, whose sole instruments are a*"telescope and an electric key, it cannot be interfered with by a diversewireless wave, because it is controlled bv a system of selective transmission. It micrht* accidentally happen that the wave-lengths controlling were discover ed bv an enemy, but that wave length can be actually changed while the torpedo is in sight. More wonderful still —and approaching human qualities—its inventor claims that if an enemy attempts to interfere with it by wireless, it possesses the faculty of pointing immediately in the direction of that enemv. and making directly for him. There are other qualities, too, inherent in this trulv epoch-making invention., It can be operated by night and day alike, being subject to accurate control bv an arrangement of tiny lights, so shielded as to be visible' only to the operator. Moreover, it carries a searchlight of its own,.which may be switched on and off bv wireless. As regards range, the surface type as a cruiser has a cruising radius of 200 miles at 50 miles an hour. Then either type can be guided 200 miles to sea by an aeroplane, and launched against the enemy at the end of the run. Its further havoc spreading abilities are summed up in its power of a double attacks. Thus it carries a torpedo which, when the destroyer or submarine is in strikirfg distance, can be launched by wireless. If the torpedo strikes, thd destroyer—submerged or surface type alike—can be turned around by wireless "and sent home. And if the torpedo misses, the destroyer, which carries an additional half-ton of high explosives, can be sent on to retrieve the error in which case, of course, it is itself destroyed upon impact.