Whitehead torpedo

During the 19th century, an officer (John Whitehead) of the Austrian Marine Artillery conceived the idea of using a small boat laden with explosives, propelled by a steam or an air engine and steered by cables to be used against enemy ships; his papers came into the possession of Captain Giovanni Luppis upon his death. Luppis had a model of the device built; it was powered by a spring-driven clockwork mechanism and steered remotely by cables from land. Dissatisfied with the device, which he called the "coast-saver", Luppis turned to Robert Whitehead, who then worked for Stabilimento Tecnico Fiumano, a factory in Fiume. By 1870 Whitehead's torpedoes were running at . There was still the problem of course correction (returning the torpedo to its correct course after it had deviated due to wind or wave action). The solution was the gyroscope gear, which was patented by Ludwig Obry, the rights to which was bought by Whitehead in 1896. ==Design==

In 1868, Whitehead offered two types of torpedoes to the world's navies: one was in length with a diameter of . It weighed and carried a warhead. The other was long with a diameter. It weighed and carried a warhead. Both models could do with a range of . The United States Navy started using the Whitehead torpedo in 1892 after an American company, E. W. Bliss, secured manufacturing rights. ==Significance==

In 1871, the Royal Navy bought manufacturing rights, and started producing the torpedo at the Royal Laboratories at Woolwich, England. The Royal Navy fitted the Whitehead torpedo on its earliest submarines, from onwards. The French, German, Italian, Russian navies soon followed suit and began acquiring the Whitehead torpedo. By 1877, the Whitehead torpedo was attaining speeds of with ranges of up to . By the 1880s, more of the world's navies acquired the Whitehead and began deploying torpedo boats to carry them into battle and engineers began to envision submarines armed with Whitehead torpedoes. In 1904, British Admiral Henry John May commented, "but for Whitehead, the submarine would remain an interesting toy and little more". The last known operational use of a Whitehead torpedo was during the Battle of Drøbak Sound on 9 April 1940. Two torpedoes were fired from a torpedo battery in the Oslofjord at the German cruiser . This finished the ship off after it had been severely damaged by cannon fire from Oscarsborg. ==Former Operators==

• Whitehead Mark 1 torpedo • Whitehead Mark 1B torpedo • Whitehead Mark 2 torpedo • Whitehead Mark 2C torpedo • Whitehead Mark 3 torpedo • Whitehead Mark 5 torpedo ==See also==