Torpedoes and Torpedo Warfare

In the following pages the Author has endeavoured to supply a want, viz. a comprehensive work on Torpedo Warfare, brought down to the latest date.

The information has been obtained while practically engaged in torpedo work at home and abroad, and from the study of the principal books which have already appeared on the subject, and to the authors of which he would now beg to express his acknowledgments, viz.: "Submarine Warfare," by Lieut.-Commander Barnes, U.S.N.; "Notes on Torpedoes," by Major Stotherd, R.E.; "Art of War in Europe," by General Delafield, U.S.A.; "Life of Fulton," by C. D. Colden; "Torpedo War," by R. Fulton; "Armsmear," by H. Barnard; "Treatise on Coast Defence," by Colonel Von Scheliha; Professional Papers of the Royal Engineers; "The Engineering"; "The Engineer"; "Scientific American"; "Iron"; &c., &c.

The Author is also desirous of thanking the following gentlemen, to whom he is indebted for much of the valuable information contained herein:—

London, 1879.

THE earliest record we have of the employment of an infernal machine at all resembling the torpedo of the present day, was in 1585 at the siege of Antwerp. Here by means of certain small vessels, drifted down the stream, in each of which was placed a magazine of gunpowder, to be fired either by a trigger, or a combination of levers and clockwork, an Italian engineer, Lambelli, succeeded in demolishing a bridge that the enemy had formed over the Scheldt.

So successful was this first attempt, and so tremendous was the effect produced on the spectators, by the explosion of one of these torpedoes, that further investigation of this new mode of Naval warfare was at once instituted.

But it was not until some two hundred years after that any real progress was effected, though numerous attempts were made during this period, to destroy vessels by means of sub-marine infernal machines.

Publisher -

Language -

Paperback

Contributors

Author

C. W. Sleeman

Published Date -

ISBN - 9786253870270

Dimensions - 24.4 x 17.0 x 2.2 cm

Page Count - 395