THE AERIAL TORPEDO.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 September 1915, Page 11

THE AERIAL TORPEDO.

A WONDERFUL MACHINE. Le Temps lately published an interesting description of the aerial torpedo which is said to have been wed by the Germans in France. This engine was invented by a Swedish officer, Major Unge, in 1900. It is a cylindro-conical shell of an extremely elongated type. Its interior is divided into two unequal compartments, the larger of which, at the head of the projectile, receives the charge of the torpedo, while the other contains the powder intended to produce, by its combustion, the necessary force for the propulsion. It terminates in a base pierced, parallel, by a number of small spiral ducts, which allow for the escape of the gases caused by the combustion of the charge, and form a sort of turbine, the effect of which is to cause the rotation of the projectile round its axis. From all evidence this movement accelerates in proportion to the progress of the combustion of the powder enclosed in the posterior compartment. At its head the torpedo has a fuse which, whilst always percussive, develops into a time fuse as soon as the projectile attains the fixed rapidity of rotation. The motor system does not begin to take effect until after its propulsion, either by means of a small special gun (Minenwerfer) or by means of some other propelling engine, to give it its initial movement and the required direction. At the first experiments, made at Marma, in Sweden, in October, 1901, under the patronage and with the asistance of the Swedish military authority, Major Unge's torpedoes only contained SJlb of explosives, and had a range of four miles. Sweden, not seeing its way to make use of the major's invention, the latter scld his patent to the German Government. At that time he had already greatly improved his machine, and it now carries for a distance of ten miles. It is quite possible that Krupp engineers hare still further improved the Unge torpedo, and it is not improbable, Le Temps adds, that certain long range bombardments, attributed to the hypothetical 42cm. guns, have actually been effected by means of larger types of these torpedoes.