Whitehead torpedo

Common card · No. 329234

The Whitehead torpedo was the first self-propelled or "locomotive" torpedo ever developed. It was perfected in 1866 by British engineer Robert Whitehead from a rough design conceived by Giovanni Luppis of the Austro-Hungarian Navy in Fiume. It was driven by a three-cylinder compressed-air engine invented, designed, and made by Peter Brotherhood. Many naval services procured the Whitehead torpedo during the 1870s, including the US Navy. This early torpedo proved itself in combat during the Russo-Turkish War when, on 16 January 1878, the Ottoman ship Intibah was sunk by Russian torpedo boats carrying Whiteheads, though this story has been disputed in one book. The term "torpedo" comes from the torpedo fish, which is a type of ray that delivers an electric shock to stun its prey.

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