Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

438 ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD. its discharge usually tends to lower the nose a trifle below the tail. In under-water dis- charge, if the ship firing the torpedo is in motion, a steel slide is pushed out from the side in such a manner that the torpedo, when fired, shall not be affected by the rush of the water along the vessel’s hull. Torpedoes would not be fired from submerged tubes at our Admiralty. It was “ cjntrolled ” by a pair of wires wound on two drums within the torpedo, and which, rapidly hauled upon from behind, re- ^mtrøUnblc volved the propellers and drove the torpedo forward. Each drum actuated a separate screw, and at the same time, by a clever transmission gear, worked the rudders. TORPEDO STRIKING THE WATER. {Photo, West, Southsea.) speeds exceeding 16 knots, and 14 knots is the maximum generally accepted to-day. The torpedoes employed by other nations are all derived from the Whitehead, though they have been given different- names. We may appre- ciate with satisfaction, however, that, in the matter of torpedo evolution along progressive lines, Great Britain stands easily first to-day. In addition to automatic torpedoes, atten- tion has for many years past been devoted to “ controllable ” torpedoes. Of these the most famous is the Brennan, now abandoned by If one wire were pulled faster than the other, the torpedo turned to the right, and vice versa. The great fault of the Brennan torpedo was that it could not return to its starting-point, though it could twist or turn about in any direction over an arc of 40° each side of right ahead. At the time that we were developing the Brennan, the United States purchased the Sims-Edison torpedo. This was a torpedo 28 feet long, suspended by four supports from a metal surface-float fitted with two small