Work at the Kharkiv Electromechanical and Turbo-Generator Plant on the project of electromagnetic torpedo tubes (1936–1938)
Authors: Annienkov Ihor 
Published: December 2024

The article, based on archival documents of the Kharkiv Electromechanical Plant, highlights the activities of scientists of this enterprise during 1936–1938 on the project to create electromagnetic systems for bubble-free torpedo firing, which in today is completely new information for historians of science and technology, and for specialists in the field of electrical machine engineering too. This project arose as a result of a confluence of several circumstances, one of which was the need of the Soviet naval submarine fleet on the eve of World War II to improve itself torpedo armament with systems that would not reveal submarines when firing torpedoes from a submerged. Another circumstance was that since 1934 the Kharkiv Electromechanical Plant was the main enterprise in the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republic for the production of electromechanics for ships of all classes and for all coastal defense facilities, and therefore its administration and the scientific and technical personnel who were involved in defense issues at the plant, were aware of this problem. At the same time, some of the latter, working part-time at the Kharkiv Electrotechnical Institute, from the first half of the 1930s, along with the studies problems of rotary electric machines, actively developed the direction of electric machines with the axial [linear] direction of rotor movement, and achieved significant results in this. Thus, by 1936, conditions had been formed when meeting the need to provide Soviet submarines with bubble-free torpedo firing systems became theoretically possible through the use of electromagnetic torpedo launching according to the methods developed by Kharkiv scientists for linear electric machines, and by torpedo tubes whose corresponding equipment for which’s could be manufacturing at Kharkiv Electromechanical Plant. However, this theoretical possibility required practical confirmation, for which the “Magnetic Torpedo Pusher” project was organized, carried out by the same specialists who were engaged in the study of linear electric machines both at the Kharkiv Electromechanical Plant and at the Kharkiv Electrotechnical Institute. The purpose of the project was to select a possible version of the fundamental design of an electromagnetic torpedo tube and test the functionality created according to the chosen design option using model experiments. Studies have shown that pushing a torpedo out of a torpedo tube within the framework of the modes established by the customers of the project is possible with the help of a running magnetic field, however, the electromagnetic method of launching a torpedo does not make it completely bubble-free, but only leads to a decrease in the volume of the air bubble formed during the firing. Wherein, the use of electromagnetic launch of torpedoes on existing and designed projects of Soviet submarines turned out to be impossible due to significant changes in the weight and size characteristics of the electrical power equipment, that need to be installed in this case. Meanwhile, the same degree of reduction of the air bubble without any significant additional costs has already been achieved in the designs of pneumatic torpedo tubes of Stalinets-type submarines, projected by order of the Soviet Union by German and Holland designers, which completely deprived the project of torpedo tubes with electromagnetic action of its attractiveness, and led to its closure. At the same time, despite the unsuccessful result of this project in the context of creating a bubble-free torpedo firing system, its implementation allowed Kharkiv scientists to validate and verify the methods they created for calculating and designing linear electric machines, as well as to determine the optimal designs of magnetofugal stators, which was subsequently used in the creation special electromechanical equipment for the mining and construction industries.