FIRST TORPEDOES.

Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume XXVIII, Issue 1397, 1 November 1932, Page 2

FIRST TORPEDOES.

s The first navy to use torpedoes was the Austrian. Although ]bhe actual i inventor of the modem weapon, Rsfe- . ert "Whitehead,. was an' Englishman, ,' he originally got the idea from ''jan - officer in the Austrian navy. The A/ty** trian's idea was to construci.'aa <nw> . ' ary sort of clockwork boat, "and m* - der it dangerous by loading^he f^t of the vessel with a charge;* of s&ne ] explosive. He. mentioned the id.e^o ] Whitehead, who was jbhen Uving^n Austria, and he, seeing the vartlSS* sibilities of the idea/ at once seflpjp - work to improve it.. At the enjof j two years or so he had produced a rough sort of torpedo, on the lwMp[ ' v the modern one. This first wewa - did. not work preperly, and after j&jfc p - ning a little distance, sank. At Uust, i however, workable ones were yrto- „ duced, and Whitehead sold Jhem" to j the Austrian -Navy. Since then, of d coursej other navies, have adopted the t torpedo, and his name has become famous.