Los Angeles herald., 1909-02-25
HURLS DEADLY
TORPEDO BY A
WIRELESS SPARK
INVENTOR OF NAVAL TERROR
FORMER ANGELENO
COULD DESTROY NATIONS FLEET
BY NEW DEVICE
Young Swede, Once an Army Officer,
Perfects Apparatus for PropeIIing
and Controlling Engine of
Destruction

hROPELLING and controlling sub
merged torpedoes by wireless tele-
graph, hurting instruments Of de-
struction against hostile battleships
without the sacrifice of a man on the
part of the naval power equipped with
the new terror-all this is made pos
sible by the invention of former resi-
dent of Los Angeles, Carl Abrahamson.
Abrahamson is now engaged in his
laboratory at San Diego perfecting the
minute details of the wireless terror
for the use of the United States navy
department, for the United States is to
profit by the invention of the young
Swedes brilliant mind
One day nearly a month ago Abra-
hanson, in the presence of a party
consisting of two Los Angeles attor-
neys, two naval officers and two naval
experts from the department at WASH
ington, conducted experiments with his
invention which cleared up every ves-
tige Of doubt as to its ability to do
what the inventor claims for it.
Further Tests
ClllCS lllG NloII VI lIlG OILiCldlS anu
the experiments made under their su-
pervision the apparatus has been
shipped to an eastern naval station for
further tests
The inventor is native of Sweden
and has been in America only a short
time Before going to San Diego he
lived in Los Angeles. Before coming
to this country he served as an officer
in the Swedish army and is highly edu-
Gated and a man of means. All of his
work has been done in the most secre-
tive manner, it being impossible for
even his most intimate friends to gain
admission to the premises where his
experiments have been made during
working hours.
So far as is known he has shown his
plans and drawing to only two persons
outside of the party present at the time
of the government tests. One of these
persons. w. w. Broaddus, is the oper-
ator in the San Diego office of the
United Wireless Telegraph company.
When questioned yesterday concerns
ing the Abrahamson invention Mr..
Broaddus said: Yes, it is true I have
seen the drawings of Mr. Abrahamson's
apparatus for propelling and control
ling torpedoes and there is no reason
why the invention should not be a COM
plete success. 1t is really all so simple
in principle and practicability that 1
cannot imagine why it was not thought
of before.
Caught His Spark
Il first became acquainted with Abra-
hanson through having my wireless
apparatus interfered with by the DOW
erful current or spark he uses in his
work down on the water front. l can
not do anything when he is working for
fear of being burned out, and it has
been his habit to come in and notify
me of the time when he intended to
make experiments so that l could stay
out of the air. "
Mr.. Broaddus then gave a detailed
account of the invention as worked out
by Abrahamson. describing it in the
minutest details, sometimes using
terms that were readily understandable
to the layman and again dropping into
the technical language of his profess
sion.
Like Wireless Plant
The substance of the explanation was,
however, that the torpedo apparatus,
so far as propulsion is concerned,
worked on the same principle as the or
binary wireless telegraph plant, it be-
ing possible to transmit from an aerial
on shore to an aerial supported by cork
floats and connected by wires with the
torpedo submerged In the water, cur
rent sufficient to propel 16-foot tor
pedo of the type now in use in the
American navy, at a speed of thirty
two miles per hour.
The control of the torpedo is accom-
plished by magnet set on each side of
the propeller and connected with the
steering gear. These magnets are of
different degrees of sensitiveness, thus
being susceptible to different degrees of
power in electrical currents and MAX
ing the steering possible by a variation
of the amount of power transmitted to
the torpedo.