Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1889-03-07
sELF-MovINe ToRPEpoEs.
Our Navy to Have a Supply of Them for thu
New War Sl,I.,a

SELF-MOvING TORPEDOES.
Our Navy to Have a Supply of Them for the
New War Ships.
Although automobile torpedoes have
been familiar for years in foreign SER
vices, our Government does not even
possess one of these weapons to-day.
Steps have recently been taken to re-
move this reproach upon our enter
prise. and the torpedo chosen for the
use OF the navy is an American inven-
ton, that of Captain Howell. The
dotchklss Ordnance Company has en-
tered into a contract with the Navy
department to manufacture a first in
stallment of these torpedoes, but the
agreement furnishes a fresh illustra-
ton OF the time required to prepare
any part of our system of attack and
defense, since it allows twenty months
for the delivery of thirty torpedoes
and ten launching gears. The manu-
facture will be carried on in this coun-
try.
The element of size fixed in the tor
pedo is its greatest diameter, 143
inches; but its length may vary from
81 to II feet, and its weight from 42S
to 453 pounds. provided only its inter-
ior space will store wet compressed
gun cotton equal to 173 per cent of
the total weight of the torpedo. The
stipulation is that it must have a range
of at least 400 yards in still water, and
must travel this distance at an average
speed of not less than %! knots
per hour. In other words, it
would pass over this minimum
range of 400 yards in about
half a minute. Then. as to its accu-
racy. 1t must not deviate within this
range of 400 yards more than fifteen
yards to the right or left of the point
aimed at, nor more than two yards
above or below the depth fixed for its
running. These results must be shown
by the torpedo when discharged from
a vessel running at a speed as great as
Is knots: and they are to be had not
only when it is discharged ahead or
astern, but even when fired abeam at
that speed. Some of the torpedo
launching gears are to be furnished
expressly for use on the broadside.
These specifications contain these fur
Their requirements:
When launched from height of four feet
from the water surface, after the first 81 yards
rum the deviation in the vertical plane from the
depth for which the torpedo was set shall not
exceed two feet The initial dive shall not ex-
coed - feet, measured from the surface of the
water When launched from the height of II
feet above the water the vertical deviation. af-
ter the first 100 yards rum shall not exceed two
foo hnFn nnGf foi roitio HI cba11 NOT
coed p feet, measured from the surface of the
water. The submerging apparatus shall be ca
pable of ready adjustment, to cause the
torpedo to maintain any desired depth, subject
to the above conditions.
Taking all these guaranteed quail
ties into consideration, there is good
ground for believing that the new tor
pedoes introduced into our naval SER
vice will be equal in efficiency to the
famous Whitehead, the invention of
an English engineer in the Austrian
service. Immunity from premature
explosion while being loaded and
handled is required by the con-
tract. and the torpedo is to
be so fitted as to sink to the
bottom at the end of its run, or, if used
for exercise and practice, to come to
the surface in order to be easily recov-
cred and used again. Before any tor
pedo is accepted it must have it's fly
wheel spun for an hour at contract
speed, without showing signs of weak
ness. In short, the Government takes
care that it shall have something to
show for its money in this new addi-
ton to Onr naval devices.
Besides the new ships which are to
be fitted with torpedo tubes, we shall
soon have two vessels intended wholly
for torpedo warfare. One of these is
the little Stiletto, which was recently
purchased from the Herreshoffs; while
the other is more important vessel
built expressly by the same firm as a
torpedo craft, at a cost of $50, $50. She
is to have a length of 1873 feet, beam
of 14k, and a mean draught of little
over 81 feet. Her displacement will
not be above 100 tons. Her speed will
probably be % knots, produced by ver-
teal quadrupie expansion engines.
This vessel will carry no less than
eight tubes for automobile torpedoes,
besides a pair of 6-pounder rapid fire
guns. So at last beginning has been
made in the construction both of NOV
ing torpedoes and of fast torpedo boats.
We are much behind foreign countries
in this particular, but if the types Sc
lected prove satisfactory. as they now
promise to be, energy can duly make
| up for the time devoted to experiment
and deliberation.-Was Cor.
Y. Y. Sun.