A NEW TORPEDO.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2364, 3 December 1908, Page 2

A NEW TORPEDO.

NAVAL TACTICS REVOLUTIONISED. “The most wonderful thing ever fashioned by man for the purposes cf war” is the opinion of experts as to the new British torpedo, it is the result of the patient labors of two young naval officers, and places the equipment of the British fleet far ahead of that of all rival Powers, .and will revolutionise naval tactics., It is a marvel of speed, radge, .accuracy, and destructiveness. It s general features may thus be summarised : —Diameter •21 inches, range 7000 yards (about -I miles), speed 31 knots, explosive charge over 200ibs. To enable our readers to form even a faint idea or this fearful engine it is only /necessary to compares it with former ones. We owe the torpedo to an Austrian inventor, upon whose crude ideas Mr Whitehead worked with results which at once captivated the -world.* "His weapon had an average speed of 8.5 knots foir a. distance of 200 yards, with a, rate of 7.5 knots up to 600 yards. These results were regarded .at the time as almost beyond the limits of possibility, and at once writers rushed into print- with prophecies that owing to the menace of the torpedo, battleship,s and even cruisers were doomed. The Admiralty at once . bougiu the British rights of manufacture for d 15,000, and then, began that interesting competition in improvements in the torpedo and in measures of defence against it which has gone on year by year for considerably over a quarter of a century without intermission. The success of the torpedo resulted in the invention of a crinoline • net of steel, to hang round a ship and catch the weapon. For a time it .vas imagined the torpedo was foiled, out then some ingenious person thought of fitting strong scissors to he head of the torpedo to cut a way through the net. This development gave rise to the manufacture of a monger net, and then followed more powerful scissors. And so the contest of offence and defence has been waged.- Now comes the new British torpedo, .a marvellous weapon. Tin evolutionary change is in too motive power. Before the Dreadnought was juict it was known that we were on the eve of developments in torpedo ■manufacture winch would force batdeships to fight, at fire or six miles’ . ange at least if they would kee]) outude the range of tiio enemy’s torpedoes, and at this distance the familiar din gun was comparatively ineffective, therefore, the word went, forth for a -hip to carry. only the biggest and most powerful guns. Home time ago an American hit on the idea of heatuig the compressed air used in propelling the torpedo. Messrs Armstrong, Whitworth and Co. later on evolved a type of motor that gave most remarkable results. The application of the heater to the familiar ißin torpedo,at once raised its range to 4000 yards, with a .speed during the entire run of twenty-eight knots. At the time of these trials the Admiralty was reproached for not- at once ordering some of these improved torpedoes. The naval authorities remain'd silent, and, it now appears, with good reason. Their new weapon places the . British Navy in this respect ,ar ahead of ail other Bowers, and incidentally justifies with all completeness the action of the Admiralty in designing all-big gun.-ships.