Tor-pe′do.
A movable chamber or mine charged with an explosive which is fired by contact or by fuse.
They are here divided into
| 1.
Nautical | 4.
Railway. |
| 2.
Military. | 5.
Fishing. |
| 3.
Oil-well. | 6.
Toy. |
1. (
Nautical.) Torpedoes are of four classes,—
| a. Drifting. | c. Boom. |
| b. Anchored. | d. Maneuvered. |
The drifting and anchored preceded the boom and maneuvered, and are adapted for circumstances and positions where (
a) they may be allowed to drift with the stream or tide against a vessel in a river or channel or at anchor; or (
b) may be placed in the path of a vessel, or in the line of attack.
The maneuvered class is adapted to be navigated usually beneath the surface of the water, its course and depth being determined and regulated by various devices to bring it in contact with the ship against which it is directed.
The
torpedo perishes in the explosion; the
torpedo-boat, on the contrary, carries a torpedo, and either explodes it against the enemy's vessel in such a manner as not itself to suffer in the contact, or launches it against the vessel after attaining such a degree of proximity as to insure the aim and power of navigation of the torpedo.
See Tor-Pedo-boat.
Several terms used in practice are rather general than accurately technical, as they denote whole classes.
Such are,—
Magnetic torpedo, one exploded by electromag-netism, by spark, wire, or ignited pencil-line in a fuse; in contradistinction to one fired by contact, clock-work, etc.
Submarine torpedo, one placed beneath the surface of the water.
Can-torpedo, one in a metallic caisson.
Laniard-torpedo, one pulled off by a laniard, etc.
The torpedo is so named from a species of ray found in the Mediterranean, which has the power of imparting an electric shock when touched.
The
Gymnotus electricus, a fresh-water eel of
South America, has a similar power.
The torpedo-ray has long been known.
Theophrastus, in his “Treatise on poisonous animals,” says that “the torpedo can send the power which proceeds from it through wood and through harpoons, so as to produce torpor in those who have them in their hands,”
Athenaeus, in the “Deipuosophists,” says: “Clearchus the Solensian has explained the cause of this in his
Treatise on Torpor, but since his explanation is rather a long one, I do not recollect his exact words.”
The author of the “Banquet of the learned” goes on to say :—
Plato, the philosopher, says in the “Meno,” “you seem very much to resemble the sea-torpedo, for that fish causes any one who comes near it to become torpid” ; and an allusion to the name occurs also in Homer, where he says,—
His hand was torpid at the wrist.
“The torpedo,” says Aristotle, “is one of the cartilaginous and viviparous fishes; and, to provide itself with food, it hunts after little fish, touching them and causing them all to become torpid and motionless.”
Archestrus says in his “Demetrius,” —
Then I took a torpedo, calculating
If my wife touched it with her tender fingers
That they would get no hurt.
For an account of the Gymnotus, see
Humboldt's “Cosmos.”
In the early instances, floating mines were used in breaking booms, bridges, or other obstructions to navigation, as well as in breaking a cordon of ships or destroying a fleet in port.
In 1585 four floating mines were sent from
Antwerp by Zambelli, against a bridge across the Scheldt, erected by the
Duke of
Parma.
Each flat-boat of about eighty tons' burden was stowed with 7,000 pounds of powder confined by mason-work and heavy stones.
The mines were to be exploded by a matchrope and by clock-work.
One was successful, and made a breach of 200 feet in the bridge, doing immense damage in the vicinity
September 30, 1628, the
English employed floating tin caissons of powder against the
French at
Rochelle.
One exploded against a vessel without seriously damaging it. The others were intercepted.
In the afternoon come the German, Dr. Knuffler, to discourse with us about his engine to blow up ships.
We doubted not the matter of fact, it being tried in Cromwell's time, but the safety of carrying them in ships. —Pepys's Diary, 1662.
In 1688 an immense floating bomb was prepared by the
French against the port of
Algiers, but was not used.
In 1693-95 similar contrivances were used by the
English in besieging St. Malo,
Dieppe, and
Dunkirk, without serious damage.
In 1770 the Russians burned the Turkish fleet in the port of Tchesme, and destroyed the fortifications by the shock of the explosion.
In 1804 the loaded catamarans of
Fulton were used by the
English against the French fleet off
Boulogne.
But little damage was done.
The experiments were repeated again and again against Le Forte Rouge at
Calais, 1804 (
Fulton blew up the brig “Dorothea” in Walmer Roads, October, 1805.
See
Fulton's “Torpedo war,” and “Torpedoes, their invention and use,” by
W. R. King, U. S. A., 1866, Plates XVIII., XIX.);
Rochefort, 1809: the pontoon bridges of the
French on the
Danube, at
Essling; in 1813, by the Austrians in attempting to destroy the bridges across the
Elbe at Koenigstein.
About 1843
Colonel S. Colt constructed a torpedo with which he blew up a ship in the
Eastern Branch of the
Potomac River, near the
Washington Navy Yard; it is believed that the most important feature of this consisted in the application of electro-magnetism as a means of exploding the contained powder.
Torpedoes were extensively employed by the Russians during the Crimean war as a defense for the harbor of
Cronstadt.
These were suspended from buoys to which they were connected by pipes inclosing at their upper part a small glass tube containing sulphuric acid; on the buoy being touched by a passing vessel, the tube would be broken and the sulphuric acid come in contact with chlorate of potash in the lower part of the pipe, causing its immediate inflammation and consequent explosion of the gunpowder in the magazine.
The experiment of the “
Louisiana” before
Fort Fisher in 1864 is one of the latest instances.
Two hundred and fifteen tons of powder were stowed on board.
A tier of barrels, with the upper heads removed, were covered by 60–pound canvas bags.
A Gomez fuse was woven through the mass.
Three modes of explosion were adopted.—clock-work and percussion, candles, slow-match.
The vessel was towed within 851 yards of the works, and exploded in one hour and fifty-two minutes, without doing any damage whatever to the fort.
See
infra,
Fig. 6560.
a. The
drifting torpedo is of various forms, and in its mode of action it is carried against the enemy's works or vessels by the current of the river, the set of the tide, or the drift of the wind.
They may be divided into
can or
buoy torpedoes, according to shape;
taniard-torpedoes, which are pulled off by a cord;
hydrogen-torpedoes which, when the can strikes a vessel, turn a stream of hydrogen on to a piece of spongy platinum and ex-
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plode the charge;
horological torpedoes, exploded by clockwork after the expiration of a given time.
The
Boule de Verdun is the name given to a crawling torpedo which was to have been launched at
Verdun with the purpose of destroying a bridge which the Prussians had thrown across the Meuse, about three miles below the city.
It was a nearly spherical chamber, about 40 inches in diameter, and contained a clock-work mechanism for pulling the trigger of a doublebarreled pistol which ignited the primary powder.
It was based upon the principle that a spherical body of a weight slightly greater than the displaced water, and having its center of gravity and magnitude coincident, will seek and keep the deepest portion and current of the river.
It was not used, as
Verdun capitulated just before it was to be launched.
 |
|
Spar-torpedo. |
A drifting spar-torpedo intended to overcome obstructing chains or booms was invented by
Lewis, of the
British Royal Engineers.
It had a spar weighted to float nearly vertically, and when the upper end met with an obstruction, the lower end passed underneath, and, the weight being dropped by the action, the lower end, carrying the torpedo, rose rapidly and struck against the vessel's bottom.
b. Anchored torpedoes are attached to mooring piles or anchors.
They are firmly connected to submerged structures, or by a cable or swaying boom which allows them some lateral play.
c. Spar-torpedoes.
The spar-torpedo is carried on the end of a spar rigged overboard from the bows of a vessel, as seen in
Figs. 6555 and
6556, or attached to the prow.
It is of sheet-copper with brazed joints.
It has a sensitive primer, with a cylindro-conical head communicating with the magazine of the torpedo.
The head is in contact with and protected from the water by a thin hemispherical cap of soft, wellannealed copper.
Fig. 6554 shows the torpedo, the smaller figure being an enlarged view of the exploding arrangement.
The charge is usually fired by contact, but sometimes by electricity.
The system was used in the extensive torpedo practice in
Florida Bay, 1874.
 |
|
Spar-torpedo fittings, “Pinta” (plan). |
 |
|
Spar-torpedo, “Pinta” (side view). |
Figs. 6555,
6556, show it as rigged on the “
Pinta.”
The
Wood and Lay spar torpedo was used in the United States Navy, notably by
Lieutenant Cushing in destroying the Confederate ram “
Albemarle” at
Plymouth, N. C., in 1864.
It was attached to a spar by means of the lug
b: run beneath the enemy's vessel; detached from the spar by a device for that purpose; allowed to rise against the vessel by its flotative power, when the lanyard was withdrawn, allowing the ball
a to fall upon the cap
c and explode it and the charge.
The
otter-torpedo, so called, is towed by a line from a boom rigged out athwart ship.
d. Maneuvered torpedo.
The
fish-torpedo is so named from a certain resemblance in form, and from its having an independent and automatic swimming action after being launched in the direction of the object of attack.
It is also known as the
Whitehead torpedo, and as the
Luppis-Whitehead torpedo, from the names of two persons intimately concerned in its suggestion and invention.
 |
|
Wood and lay torpedo. |
The body of the
Ericsson torpedo consists of a box of thin steel plates, 8 feet 6 inches long, 30 inches deep, and 20 inches wide The explosive is placed at the bow. The propellers are two-bladed, 3 feet 2 inches in diameter, with a pitch of 5 feet. Both revolve around a common center in opposite directions.
The motive power is a small double-cylinder oscillating-engine, driven by compressed air, which is supplied by a 25 horse power steam engine on shore, and transmitted through a tubular cable, connected just abaft the stern, as shown in
Fig. 6558. The air-pressure also governs an equipoise rudder, secured under the bottom and near the bow. The steering is effected by applying the force of the air against the tiller on one side, counteracted by the tension of a spring on the opposite side.
The submersion is regulated by two horizontal rudders turning on a transverse axle which projects from each side near the bow. These wings or rudders are so contrived and governed that they keep the torpedo at a depth of from 7 feet to 12 feet below the surface, and are provided with automatic devices, so that the latter limit cannot be exceeded.
In order to note the course of craft, a light steel mast is secured to the deck.
This is 12 feet in length, and terminates above in a wooden ball, the forward side of which is painted sea green, so as not to be perceptible to the enemy, and the rear white, so as to be easily distinguished above the water by those dispatching the torpedo.
Openings are made in the engine-compartment, through which the water enters, completely filling the interior space.
The machinery is made of bronze with boxwood bearings, so that the water serves as a lubricant to every portion, thus doing away with stuffing-boxes at the rudders.
The apparatus is launched overboard by means of swinging-davits, as shown in the figure.
The bow-piece containing the charge is detachable.
The
Lay torpedo used at
Newport is a cigar-shaped vessel, 30 feet long and 3 feet wide, formed of water and air-tight iron plates, in three compartments.
One of these is to contain the motive power,—compressed carbonic-acid gas. Another holds the machinery, which is controlled by an electric battery on shore by means of two wires, one of these governing the throttle and the other the steering-apparatus.
In the third compartment is stored 500 pounds of powder or other explosive, and in the forward portion of the vessel explosive shells are also arranged to be fired by an electric spark passing through a third wire.
These wires are embedded in a cable which is paid out as the vessel moves on. The shells are exploded without injury to the torpedo, but of course the explosion of the magazine causes its destruction.
Of late years the subject of harbor defense by means of torpedoes used offensively against an attacking fleet, has attracted great attention, and a naval torpedo-station has been established at
Goat Island,
Newport Harbor, for the purpose of instruction in their use and management on board vessels specially constructed for this object.
See torpedo-boat.
No less than 18
United States vessels were destroyed through the agency of torpedoes during the late war.
One was blown up, but not destroyed.
Of these were the monitors “Patapsco” and “
Tecumseh,” at
Charleston and
Mobile Bay respectively; the iron clads “
Cairo” and “
Baron de Kalb,” in the
Yazoo River; the iron-clads “
Milwaukee” and “
Osage,” in the
Blakely River.
In the case of stationary submarine torpedoes, the operator must know the position of each, and be provided with means for determining when a vessel approaches within its range.
For this purpose instruments for measuring angles are employed, or the torpedo itself is provided with devices for indicating the proximity of a ship.
Experiments are now being made at
Portsmouth, England, on torpedoes of the latter class.
A network of these is connected by insulated wires with a galvanic battery on shore; the wires of one set conveying the message to the operator, and those of the other serving to explode any selected torpedo by touching a key.
In other cases the firing circuit is closed automatically by the action of the signaling apparatus.
The firing is effected by a strand of platinum wire, made red hot by the passage of a current when the circuit is completed.
These experiments are said to prove that comparatively large charges cannot be exploded without compromising other charges within their effec-
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tive area.
The question remains to be decided whether it will be more practically advantageous to employ comparatively small torpedoes placed closely together, or those of larger size placed at greater intervals apart.
 |
|
The Ericsson pneumatic torpedo. |
Another English writer remarks that during the civil war in
America, the Federal fleet was in no instance successful in passing a well-arranged system of fortifications where torpedoes were used, unless the forts were first reduced from the land: and in no instance did the navy fail to accomplish its object where torpedoes were not used.
As an instance of the fallibility of torpedoes, it was found after the capture of
Charleston that the “Ironsides,” the most powerful vessel in the Federal fleet, had lain for three months over a torpedo containing 3,000 pounds of powder.
This was to have been exploded by electricity, but failed to go off.
An instance of the moral effect of torpedoes was shown in the Franco-German war, where the
French navy was completely paralyzed by the presence of torpedoes thickly studded along the German coast, and not a single engagement between the fleet in German waters and the sea-coast defenses is recorded.
Published information on the subject of the torpedo trials may be found in the “Report of the
Austrian Commission,” 1868; “Army and Navy journal,” 1874; “Revue maritime,” September, 1872, January, 1873:
Captain Harvey's “Treatise on the management of the sea-torpedo,”
London, 1871; Sarrepont's “Les Torpilles,” etc.
2. (
Military.) A mine or countermine to destroy a work, a storming column, or a working party.
In this sense a
petard may be considered as a torpedo.
Torpedoes for land defense are usually shells of small caliber, 6 and 12 pounders, provided with a percussion or friction device which causes an explosion when the ground over the torpedo is stepped on. Sometimes several are laid in a row, and a piece of board placed over them to increase the chances of explosion.
 |
|
Lay-torpedo. |
At
Fort Fisher, larger torpedoes, connected
in sets and designed to be fired by electricity, were arranged on the land face of the work.
The wires leading to the majority of these were cut by fragments of shell during the bombardment, probably preventing considerable loss of life during the assault.
Torpedoes buried in the ground and fired by a similar arrangement when trodden upon, and others connected by wires with electric batteries, were used in the defense of
Sebastopol.
 |
|
Plan of fort Fisher, N. C., showing the part extending across the Isthmus, and the face protected by torpedoes. |
Fig. 6560 shows the northeast face of
Fort Fisher, N. C., with the line of torpedoes, twenty-four in number, which were connected with the fort by three sets of double wires, each apparently intended to fire five or more torpedoes.
The torpedoes were of three kind: shells, 13′ diameter; boiler-iron cylinders, 13″ diameter and 18° long; buoy-shaped
sheet-iron cylinders of about the same capacity as the cylinders.
Before the storming of the fort shells had cut a number of the wires leading from the work, saving the attacking party from much loss and demoralization.
Ground-torpedoes, buried beneath the surface to explode when trodden upon:
bridge-torpedoes (
Haupt's), to rend the timbers or arches of bridges in demolishing them; and
railway-torpedoes, to blow up a track when a train passes, are all effective military devices.
3. Torpedoes for opening the fissures of oilwells have been patented by
Colonel E. A. L. Roberts and others, and their use has restored productiveness to many wells.
In some cases the wells have become choked by paraffine or
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other concretion, some perhaps by sediment; in others it is probable that an explosion has opened fissures leading to other pockets or veins of oil.
Some torpedoes of this kind are exploded by a time-fuse, which is let down with the instrument.
Others are exploded by a gunlock and wire from above, or by a plunger; but the best and most usual mode of igniting the charge seems to be an electric connection.
Fig. 6561 illustrates a torpedo in which a powder-chamber is surrounded by nitroglycerine, and a quick-match passes from the powder to the priming-chamber, which communicates through a tube with the fulminate, which is exploded by a hammer.
An electric connection not only enables the operator to explode the charge at will, but other packing than water may be used to confine the explosion.
A bag of flaxseed is often used for this purpose, which is lowered into the well dry, and, becoming saturated, swells and completely closes the aperture.
The bag may be cut or torn open and withdrawn.
In an explosion in an oil-well in the petroleum region, where the boring was over 800 feet deep, two cartridges were prepared, the one 25 inches in length, the other 35 inches, and each 5 inches in diameter.
These were connected by a short copper wire, 30 feet in length, so as to adjust the two charges immediately opposite to several mud-veins which were known to be that distance apart, the heaviest charge of 30 pounds nitroglycer-ine being at the lower vein, 783 feet deep, the lighter charge at the upper vein.
Twelve exploders were inserted in the largest cartridge, and eight in the other, forming a train of twenty exploders, which, by means of insulated wire, were connected about 250 feet from the well with an electric battery.
Everything being arranged, the order was given to fire.
In an instant the discharge took place, and a report like a cannon fired from a distance, accompanied by a very perceptible vibration of the earth around, was noticed by those present.
The operator and an assistant immediately pulled on the wire, thereby endeavoring to prevent entanglement.
When about fifty feet of the wire had been drawn out a reaction ensued, dragging the parties who were pulling at the wire toward the well for a distance of ten feet, to their surprise and great wonderment; this arose from the column of water lifted by the explosion and its return and fall.
4. (
Railway.) A cartridge placed on a rail to be exploded by a passing train, and thereby signal “caution” or “danger” to the engineer.
5. In the
Rocky Mountain regions, some sporting gentry — have adapted torpedoes to trout-fishing.
They take a cartridge of Giant powder, weighing about a quarter of a pound, insert into it a piece of fuse, properly capped, about six inches in length; then, lighting the fuse, the cartridge is thrown into any deep hole supposed to contain trout or any other fish.
After the cartridge has been thrown into the water, smoke and bubbles of gas are seen to rise to the surface, then in a few moments comes the explosion, — a dull, heavy report.
The surface of the water is seen to bulge up, and the ground can be felt to shake for fifteen to twenty feet back from the water.
Immediately after the explosion, all the fish that happen to be within a circle of twenty-five or thirty feet of the spot where the cartridge fell, come to the surface, either killed outright or so badly stunned that it is some minutes before they recover.
6. An explosive toy, consisting of a small quantity of fulminating-powder and fine gravel, wrapped in thin paper.
It explodes with a sharp detonation when thrown upon any hard substance.
