The Breanan Torpedo.

Thames Star, Volume XVI, Issue 5124, 19 June 1885, Page 2

The Breanan Torpedo.

The case of the Brennan torpedo, which has been adopted by the Admiralty, and the inventor of which" is to be suitably rewarded, shows that it is not only by the strength of their arms that the colonies can come to the aid of the parent empire against her enemies. The application of science to war has made brain power as important a contribution as muscular power and resolute courage. The patient inventor may nowadays, with the agencies at his command, evolve a combination of mechanism and chemical force that may revolutionise the conditions of warfare. And it seems that a really important engine of war has been perfected by the young Irish* Victorian inventor, Louis Brennan. From the first it . was recognised < here that the Erennan torpedo must be a very considerable thing if only it would do what was claimed on its behalf. This torpedo was designed and manufactured in M elbourne, and in promoting it Mr Brennan had associated with him Messrs W. an 1 S. Calvert, also of this city. The torpedo was tried in Hobson's Bay in 1879, its test performances exciting wonder and approbation. It was afterwards exhibited for several weeks at Par* liament House, where it was inspected with much interest. Mr Brennan subsequently went home to bring his invention under the notice of the Imperial authorities, the result being that it was favorably reported upon by the military men to whom it was submitted. The Brennan torpedo is fish shaped, or rather is the form of a cigar, in this respect somewhat resembling the Whitehead torpedo. It is about 15ft. long, is constructed of the best boiler plate, and weighs about 15cwt. Its charge, lcwt, of gun cotton, is contained in the fore compartment, while the mechanism by which it is propelled and steered is placed in the centre. There are at the stern two brass fans working in opposite directions. The propelling and steering power is obtained from an engine of 20-horse power, on shore or on shipboard, which by pulling long long thin wires off two drums inside the torpedo causes the fans to revolve and the torpedo itself to shoot ahead. The advantages olaimed for the invention are that after it has been launched it can be steered in any direction from the starting point, and that in the event of its missing the mark it can be recovered. It can also be kept at any desired depth, and its course can be followed by mean* of a small disc attached to a long staff. The rate at which it can be propelled is said to be over 15 knots an hour.

Absvbd feelings are not characteristic of colonists; the Australasian thus descants on the primrose folly :—The maunderings of the English Conger stives about primroses and the memory of their lost leader hare reached a rery fitting climax. And the climax is the issue of a " primrose number " of St. Stephen's Review, devoted to Ihe skilful wearing to* gether. of the c'aims, and characters, and fortunes, and heraldic insignia of the late and the present occupants of Hughenden Manor —Lord Beaconefield and Sir William Wilson. Recognition of the principle that a liring Sir Samuel is better than a dead Beaoonsfield i» evinced by the puffery devoted to the living knight, whose portrait is given sitting in the chair of Burke in the Hugheuden library, and whose table of genealogy, to prove his Royal descent, it set out in full. It is satisfactory to feel that, if any fear existed of the failure of the Royal line, we should be reassured by the certainty that we always had pur Imperial Sir Samuel to fall back upon in the event of this improbable catastrophe. But who would have believed that the ambition of our s Tictoriau knight soarod to the reversion of a crown ? Gtlamis he is, and Cawdor—the greatest is behind. And, in the meantime, it is odd to see that Tory party prominence is secured on leasing terms with the occupation of Hughenden, as though it wore > shooting or grazing right.

The arrest of Captain Baron Portier dcs Echelles, an Außtriaa officer, con* tinues to engross public attention. It has now transpired that Italy was the Power that bought the sketches prepared sod disposed of by the incriminated officer, and that the sketches related to the works in the Malborghetto Pass, which is arery important military position, and the fortU tications of which were only recently finished last year at enormous cost. Gire a tramp the cold shoulder one day, and he will come back the next day for potatoes to go with it.