WANTED TO BUY TRGENT:

Gun Flash, Issue VI, 6 February 1943, Page 2

WANTED TO BUY TRGENT:

Owing to an unpv.ee©dented rush ofoufiruas, our progressive organisation hue a 'largo-' demand for IA A T 3.-. . Any six©, quantity, or condition will receive favourable cons ten.. Prefor ©nee giver, to those with inscrip*, tier "WELCOME’ 1 * Apply' in first instance to Orderly Roon, or phone Adjt• - phone 04. Pa• —o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o-o—s-o—e—

Did you know ? \ x The Amarican opossum is the greateft nostor of the art of "playing poitfu-’"* It lire like r. . corpse, and it nay be pounded erely and flung away without exhibiting any sign of life.

ROBOT OF DEOTHJCTTOh: ("Readers' - ik—— • . Digest”.) : ' The torpedo against which naval on- - giheer s'- have found no? satisfactory ; protection, is man’s most intricate . ■ engine of. destruction* It. is tho ' '•’small es t: war ship afloat - \24» ft long. ■For>it is a ship, •• complete .with engine.' room, cargo, and mechanical crow* If ho directed it will describe r. complete semicircle before stiling down to its ’ course * . Like. a big -battleship, it -fl given, tests before ic joins tho ; floot* A 3000 pound fish of stool with 600 pounds, of U.S. 'in its warhead, it knifes its way through the sea at ; ■. nearly a mile a minute*. Its.wallop . staggers -the heaviest. battleship* ’ The ' self propelling torpedo was'bora in 1364, when. Captain Tuppis of; tho? -Austrian favy went to ti.io s famous Scot-, tiah engineer Robert VA'-itonead ws.th a .plan for on 'automatic, self-steering, underwater, projectile • • Whit o’ i , fascinated, went to work at once aid two -ears later, the first Whitehead, torpedo slid into tho water. It wfcct ? a crude - lithic Machine, 10 foot lony, travelling ah 6 m*p*h*,- ar/, /carrying , , six pounds of dynamite, , 'hit so sound 1 was . eh cad?',s -work that his basic : , sign-, lias. been changed /only’ slightly* •’ mhe ocrly torpedo was notoriously’ . .'erratic • in tho water and. menaced tho . mother : ship as much as tho target*. Even in the- last , war, several /U-boats-wore blow’ll up by . their own torpedoes*,. The ..modern tornodo is so accurate, it, can run for.-miles-without appreapiable; deviation' from its set/couve and doptn Its mechanism comprises, 1323 -.prudisionbuilt .parts* To’ make one .reouirca sone 20 ? 000 man-hours, chid it co ts the navy about ( £4i, 000'. ♦ / . Just before the torpeuo is \launches../ q. torpedo-man, on instructions from 3 the fire, control officer 4 .w-ho has computed the target’s position, .speed and; range ,• sets direction and , d opt i by yd* • justing a small spindle, like a tad io - dial.- 1 \ it : is -.no longer necessary tt "- aim the torpedo direct at the’ target. .It may be launched in any direction, . and so set t-.-.-'t it -uill tuna ho Its ,

proper course* . . ! Tbo principle romper of the cx’O / in a g-roscopic ’./Hot, a bronze flywheel the'sto of a”, saucer, . Whed < r -1 .000- r cvo.lv.t io n c per - : 5. auto ' by a jet of compressed. air. This gyro-compass '• control" a small engine yzi'Jhh oper- .' ates the directional; rudder, shortly correcting any. deviation r row tho., tor* pedo’ a fixed course* •• . • ■ underwater covinc of/the torpedo is "usually'.about. 15 foot below the ■ surface, and must co kept level.' .A, ■sensitive hydrostat, measuring depth by ex t er: water pressure,.controls ■ a second sima-1 steering engine, which ' operates horizontal mail rucoLrs* .If

,the - torpedo' runs closer to. the surface than ordered,".or deeper, these otoor it bock to its,correct depth* ; All these mechanisms aro fitted tic*. ly within the torpedo’s slim dianct ••• of 21 inches* The torpedo ,u.sod to leave tol-ta?/'. wake of : white bubbles from the corproa sod air, which streamed from its exhaust jbipe*' This .nor.6tines gave tho victim tine to dodge, and cler ’ • rar Iced tho position of tho subnarl" which'fired it,* Tho modern leave almost' no wake* 4 The white .hot. ml'*-, tare of air and steam is exhausted., through a' holler/ bronze , propeller shaft. ■ Tho stem on. striking the cold noft condenses into water - the ho t ail' form a tfiny slow ? rising bubbles which cannot be seen from a f \ tanco v-Hon-the torpedo is well down* Tho dccisMi in the next phaser,of . the war nay’ well .turn on cur wbili\• to defeat tho torpedo Ain tho Atlan 1 ;’. and to. win with it in the South Par--, ific* The tin fish is., still ■taking history* . ' ' ■ '