Torpedoes
Torpedoes.The torpedo, a self‐propelled and self‐guided underwater explosive device, was invented in 1866 by Robert Whitehead, a British engineer working for the Austro‐Hungarian Navy. The U.S. Navy evinced early interest in the device and established in 1869 the Torpedo Station at Newport, Rhode Island. After pursuing a technological dead‐end in the flywheel‐driven Howell type, the navy turned back to the Whitehead in 1892. Improved models soon followed, with turbine propulsion introduced in 1905 and an air heater in 1910 that quintupled the range to 4,000 yards.
As the torpedo increased in capability, it naturally grew in size: by 1912, the 18‐inch Mark 7 measured 17 feet in length, weighed 1,628 pounds, and carried a warhead of 326 pounds of TNT to a range of 6,000 yards at 35 knots. In 1914, the navy settled on a diameter of 21 inches for most of its new torpedoes—a standard that endured for the rest of the century.
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