Torpedoes and the Need for Naval Defense Invention
A period editorial on the growing menace of torpedo warfare, calling for American inventors to devise defenses against these new naval weapons—an early glimpse of the arms race that would define modern sea warfare.
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Scientific American · August 4, 1877 · Part 1
1 min readAn invention that will protect ships of war from torpedoes is wanted; and this want ought to stimulate the inventive skill of mechanics and scientific men. Torpedoes in some form have played an important part in the wars of latter years, but these torpedoes were not the infernal machines that are now being employed. In former days they were receptacles filled with explosive material, and were either anchored in the pathway of vessels or floated to the object that was desired to be destroyed. They were fired by concussion, clockwork, or time fuse. The location of such torpedoes could most generally be discovered, if proper attention was directed toward their places of concealment.
Torpedoes of that class were playthings compared with the inventions of Lay, Ericsson, Whitehead, and Thor[...]
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