AIR TORPEDOES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13748, 10 September 1908, Page 3

AIR TORPEDOES.

Scores of experimenters are at work endeavouring to improve the implements of war, and it is quite possible that the near future will see some nation adopting methods of war that will render existing methods obsolete. An electric gun will almost certainly be an important part of the armaments of armies and navies, and it is definitely reported now that Germany is acquiring an "air torpedo" that is almost certainly electrically propelled. The inventor is Colonel Unge, a Swede. His rights in the weapon have been acquired by the lvrupps, subject to the reservation that the Swedish Government must be permitted to use the invention in every form, a concession of patriotism that will scarcely trouble Germany. Colonel Unge's torpedo can be fired, we are told, without producing any recoil, and the torpedo tube is light and easy to move quickly from place to place. The tube is conveyed on a motor car, and can be speedily unmounted and fired without any elaborate preparations, much more rapidly than field artillery can be brought into position for firing The air torpedo can be used in every kind of warfare. In the bombardment of fortresses the new Aveapon will exercise a destructive effect on the most formidable works of defence. In field operations the torpedo can be hurled against bodies of troops as well as against troops in covered positions. In view of the fact that the torpedo can be fired without the least noise it will bo difficult for the enemy to locate the position of the battery by which it is being attacked. In coast defence the air torpedo could be fired in such a way as to drop on the decks of hostile battleships. A special tube of large calibre will be supplied to warships, so that vessels will be liable to be torpedoed above as well as below the water-line. For mountain warfare there is a smaller weapon, for use in localities where artillery could not be carried. There is no end to the claims that are made for this wonderful weapon, and even when we discount the reports, allowing for journalistic imagination, it remains certain that Germany is preparing to bring into use a noiseless projectilethrower, presumably electric, of great power.