"The Unseen Death,"

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 88, 18 April 1904, Page 4

"The Unseen Death,"

tic; woiuv ov the " silver SHARK." The Sphere of I''e>b|rua*ry 27 gives a highly interesting illustrated description of the deadly arid silent work of the terri'Me lorj redo,'' The torpedo is discharged into the water !l.ly means of compressed air, and contiimies its journey in the water l(y means of its own engines, which are also driven I>v compressed air. It has a propellor at its stern exactly the same way as any screw-driven vessel. After leaving the destroyer from which it is discharged the torpedo acts as an independent vessel, continuing in a strajg'ht line until it hits its targt't. A torpedo is made up of five—or, by a further subdivision, eisfht—segments, viz.. the firing arrangement, the explosive, air, balance, engine, buoyancy, and l/eyelwheel chambers, and the horizontal and vertical rudders and propellers. The last appliance is the gyroscope, which was devised by M. L. 0l)ry, a retired engineer of tile Austrian navy with a view to controlling the und left motions of the torpedo in the course of its run. The early torpedo swerved in its course owing 'to several reasons, and this weakness was remedied 'by the gyroscope, each of which costs CSO.

Tile Whitehead torpedo has been run dead straight for a distance of 2000 yards. The arts of shipbuilders and steel ntakcrs slatul for nothing when a Whitehead torpedo, which is aptly named the "silver shark," succeeds in striking a .ship's bottom, and tesirs and rends it. with the explosion of 2001b of guucuUou. In the hands of ignorant and careless people the Whitehead is nearly ns dancrerous to iis friends as it is 10 its foes, but in the hands of skilful and resolute men it is the niost terrible engine of warfare which the world has ever seen. The explosive chamber is ot the head of the. torpedo, and is Ift'hind the point of contact in the flight of thu'^hark.'-