Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 February 1878 — The Fish Torpedo. [ARTICLE]

The Fish Torpedo.

It is at Fiume, on the Adriatic, that Mr. Whitehead, the well-known inventor of the fish torpedo, has his principal factory. Scores of skilled laborers work there night and day at the manufacture of these terrible engines of destruction; and under his immediate supervision and continual experimenting this deadly weapon (which in the opinion of many scientific men will in time totally supersede naval artillery) is daily undergoing modifications ana improvements, . which render itl ati nearly life-like in its attributes as it is iu appearance when seen in motion under water. So much does the fish torpedo resemble a porpoise or dolphin when self-propellecTttfough the water at a little depth below the surface that on one occasion, when Mr. Whitehead first began experimenting with them at Fiume, a native sportsman who happened to be on the beach, probably on the lookout for wild fowl, fired at one which was being tried at long range, but iu a direction parallel with the shor®. fit another time Mr. White-

Read lost a torpedo, which, after a lapse of more than a rear, he recovered, through some accidental oasts of fishermen’s nets, and which proved a valuable haul to them eventually, when they took it to Its original owner, although they were at first disappointed to find that the fish was a metal one. Some of the lookers-on, who had seen the hanl at a distance, reported the capture of an enormous monster to the town folk. The price of one of these fish torpedoes, as supplied to the British Government, is about £6OO. Her Majesty's store-ship, Wye, was very recently at Flume, taking in an instalment of a quantity for the supplying of which Mr. Whitehead is undercontract with the government. When first the inventor experimented his fish torpedo the maximum speed attained by it was nine knots; the present ones go through the water for a given distance at the rate of sixteen to eighteen, and some are now in course of construction by order of and for the use of the Russian Government, which will travel at the hitherto unequaled speed of twentyfour knots. Those latter will be of large dimensions, but the given distance at a maximum rate of speed will also be greater and the explosive matter contained in increased nuantity. Each torpedo is tested before delivery, of course only as regards its propelling capacities, its accuracy of adjustment, etc., and not its exploding capabilities, which are naturally taken for granted. —London Times.