"Bay in 1864, ""Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!"" refers to a minefield laid at Mobile, Alabama. On 26 May 1877, during the Romanian War of Independence, the Romanian spar torpedo boat attacked and sank the Ottoman river monitor ""Seyfi"". This was the first instance in history when a torpedo craft sank its targets without also sinking. In 1866 British engineer Robert Whitehead invented the first effective self-propelled torpedo, the eponymous Whitehead torpedo. French and German inventions followed closely, and the term ""torpedo"" came to describe self-propelled projectiles that traveled under or on water. By 1900, the term no longer"
"mechanisms. Whitehead was unable to improve the machine substantially, since the clockwork motor, attached ropes, and surface attack mode all contributed to a slow and cumbersome weapon. However, he kept considering the problem after the contract had finished, and eventually developed a tubular device, designed to run underwater on its own, and powered by compressed air. The result was a submarine weapon, the ""Minenschiff"" (mine ship), the first modern self-propelled torpedo, officially presented to the Austrian Imperial Naval commission on 21 December 1866. The first trials were not successful as the weapon was unable to maintain a course at a"
"by Giovanni Luppis, an Austrian naval officer from Rijeka, a port city of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, and Robert Whitehead, an English engineer who was the manager of a town factory. In 1864, Luppis presented Whitehead with the plans of the ""salvacoste"" (coastsaver), a floating weapon driven by ropes from the land that had been dismissed by the naval authorities due to the impractical steering and propulsion mechanisms. Whitehead was unable to improve the machine substantially, since the clockwork motor, attached ropes, and surface attack mode all contributed to a slow and cumbersome weapon. However, he kept considering the problem after"
"under construction in 1864–5, but these vessels never saw action. Another proposal, the towed or 'Harvey' torpedo, involved an explosive on a line or outrigger; either to deter a ship from ramming or to make a torpedo attack by a boat less suicidal. A more practical and influential weapon was the self-propelled or Whitehead torpedo. Invented in 1868 and deployed in the 1870s, the Whitehead torpedo formed part of the armament of ironclads of the 1880s like HMS ""Inflexible"" and the Italian ""Caio Duilio"" and . The ironclad's vulnerability to the torpedo was a key part of the critique of"
"ship' was an 11-foot long, 14-inch diameter torpedo propelled by compressed air and carried an explosive warhead. The device had a speed of and could hit a target away. Many naval services procured the Whitehead torpedo during the 1870s and it first proved itself in combat during the Russo-Turkish War when, on January 16, 1878, the Turkish ship ""Intibah"" was sunk by Russian torpedo boats carrying Whiteheads. During the 1870s and 1880s, the basic contours of the modern submarine began to emerge, through the inventions of the English inventor and curate, George Garrett, and his industrialist financier Thorsten Nordenfelt, and"
"Canada, among others. Bibliography LeMat Revolver The LeMat revolver was a .42 or .36 caliber cap & ball black powder revolver invented by Jean Alexandre LeMat of New Orleans, which featured an unusual secondary 20 gauge smooth-bore barrel capable of firing buckshot. It saw service with the armed forces of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War of 1861–65 and the Army of the Government of National Defense during the Franco-Prussian War. This unique sidearm was also known as the ""Grape Shot Revolver."" It was developed in New Orleans in 1856 by Jean Alexandre Le Mat, whose"
"the contract had finished, and eventually developed a tubular device, designed to run underwater on its own, and powered by compressed air. The result was a submarine weapon, the ""Minenschiff"" (mine ship), the first modern self-propelled torpedo, officially presented to the Austrian Imperial Naval commission on December 21, 1866. The first trials were not successful as the weapon was unable to maintain a course on a steady depth. After much work, Whitehead introduced his ""secret"" in 1868 which overcame this. It was a mechanism consisting of a hydrostatic valve and pendulum that caused the torpedo's hydroplanes to be adjusted so"
"destroyers, which leads to some confusion. The emergence and development of the destroyer was related to the invention of the self-propelled torpedo in the 1860s. A navy now had the potential to destroy a superior enemy battle fleet using steam launches to fire torpedoes. Cheap, fast boats armed with torpedoes called torpedo boats were built and became a threat to large capital ships near enemy coasts. The first seagoing vessel designed to launch the self-propelled Whitehead torpedo was the 33-ton in 1876. She was armed with two drop collars to launch these weapons, these were replaced in 1879 by a"
"Whitworth rifle The Whitworth rifle was an English-made muzzle-loading single-shot rifled musket used in the latter half of the 19th century. Possessing excellent long range accuracy for its time, the Whitworth, when used with a scope, was the world's first sniper rifle, and saw use with Confederate sharpshooters in the American Civil War, claiming the lives of several Union generals including John F. Reynolds (killed on July 1, 1863 at Gettysburg) and John Sedgwick (killed on May 9, 1864 at Spotsylvania), two of the highest-ranking Union officers killed during the Civil War. On October, 2017 a surviving example of a"
"Henry rifle The Henry repeating rifle is a lever-action, breech-loading, tubular magazine rifle famed both for its use at the Battle of the Little Bighorn and being the basis for the iconic Winchester rifle of the American Wild West. Designed by Benjamin Tyler Henry in 1860, the Henry was introduced in the early 1860s and produced through 1866 in the United States by the New Haven Arms Company. It was adopted in small quantities by the Union in the Civil War, favored for its greater firepower than the standard issue carbine. Many later found their way West, notably in the"
"the weapon, completing the transportable 37-barrels Montigny mitrailleuse (also known as the ""Fafschamps-Montigny mitrailleuse"") in 1863. From 1859, Joseph Montigny proposed his design to Napoleon III, which led to the development of the French Reffye mitrailleuse, designed by Jean-Baptiste Verchère de Reffye with the collaboration of Montigny, and which was adopted by the French Army in 1865. The invention of Fafschamps thus became the basis of the ""mitrailleuse"", which was used by the French in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Initially kept under wraps as a secret weapon, it became widely used in battle by French artillery during the Franco-Prussian"
"War torpedoes were an important asset with the advent of nuclear-powered submarines, which did not have to surface often, particularly those carrying strategic nuclear missiles. A number of navies have launched torpedo strikes since World War II, including: The Whitehead torpedo of 1866, the first successful self-propelled torpedo, used compressed air as its energy source. The air was stored at pressures of up to and fed to a piston engine that turned a single propeller at about 100 rpm. It could travel about at an average speed of . The speed and range of later models was improved by increasing"
"kind in the world. The system he created in 1841 would become known as the British Standard Whitworth. Whitworth also invented the Whitworth rifle, which was a giant leap in the development of the rifle, delivering a shooting range which far exceeded any firearm available at the time. In the American Civil War Confederate troops equipped with barrel-length three power scopes mounted on the exceptionally accurate Whitworth rifle had been known to kill Union officers at ranges of about 800 yards (731.5m), an unheard-of distance at that time. Consequently, the Whitworth rifle is considered one of the earliest examples of"
"Nock gun The Nock gun was a seven-barrelled flintlock smoothbore firearm used by the Royal Navy during the early stages of the Napoleonic Wars. It is a type of volley gun adapted for ship-to-ship fighting, but was limited in its use because of the powerful recoil and eventually discontinued. Its bizarre appearance and operation has led to it being portrayed in modern fictional works, notably in ""The Alamo"" feature film, and the ""Richard Sharpe"" series of novels by Bernard Cornwell. The weapon was invented by British engineer James Wilson in 1779, and named after Henry Nock, the London-based armaments manufacturer"
"at Wimbledon, in 1860 by firing a Whitworth rifle from a fixed mechanical rest. The rifle scored a bull's eye at a range of 400 yards (366 m). Whitworth also designed a large rifled breech-loading gun with a 2.75 inch (69.85 mm) bore, a 12-pound 11-ounce (5.75 kg) projectile and a range of about 6 miles (10 km). The spirally-grooved projectile was patented in 1855. This was rejected by the British Army, who preferred the guns from Armstrong, but was used in the American Civil War. While trying to increase the bursting strength of his gun barrels, Whitworth patented a"
"Gatling gun The Gatling gun is one of the best-known early rapid-fire spring loaded, hand cranked weapons and a forerunner of the modern machine gun and rotary cannon. Invented by Richard Gatling, it saw occasional use by the Union forces during the American Civil War in the 1860s, which was the first time it was employed in combat. Later, it was used again in numerous military conflicts, such as the Boshin War, the Anglo-Zulu War, and the assault on San Juan Hill during the Spanish–American War. It was also used by the Pennsylvania militia in episodes of the Great Railroad"
"of gun-cotton. Whitehead went on to develop more efficient devices, demonstrating torpedoes capable of in 1876, in 1886, and, finally, in 1890. Royal Navy (RN) representatives visited Fiume for a demonstration in late 1869, and in 1870 a batch of torpedoes was ordered. In 1871, the British Admiralty paid Whitehead £15,000 for certain of his developments and production started at the Royal Laboratories in Woolwich the following year. In 1893, RN torpedo production was transferred to the Royal Gun Factory. The British later established a Torpedo Experimental Establishment at and a production facility at the Royal Naval Torpedo Factory, Greenock"
"LeMat Revolver The LeMat revolver was a .42 or .36 caliber cap & ball black powder revolver invented by Jean Alexandre LeMat of New Orleans, which featured an unusual secondary 20 gauge smooth-bore barrel capable of firing buckshot. It saw service with the armed forces of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War of 1861–65 and the Army of the Government of National Defense during the Franco-Prussian War. This unique sidearm was also known as the ""Grape Shot Revolver."" It was developed in New Orleans in 1856 by Jean Alexandre Le Mat, whose manufacturing effort was backed"
"Arrowhead device The Arrowhead device is a miniature bronze arrowhead that may be worn on campaign, expedition, and service medals and ribbons to denote participation in an amphibious assault landing, combat parachute jump, helicopter assault landing, or combat glider landing by a service member of the United States Army or United States Air Force. A soldier or airman must be assigned or attached as a member of an organized force carrying out an assigned tactical mission. A soldier or airman must actually exit an aircraft or watercraft to receive assault credit. Individual assault credit is tied directly to the combat"
"Shooters and Civil War reenactors, as well as competition shooters in the North-South Skirmish Association(N-SSA). Notes Bibliography Henry rifle The Henry repeating rifle is a lever-action, breech-loading, tubular magazine rifle famed both for its use at the Battle of the Little Bighorn and being the basis for the iconic Winchester rifle of the American Wild West. Designed by Benjamin Tyler Henry in 1860, the Henry was introduced in the early 1860s and produced through 1866 in the United States by the New Haven Arms Company. It was adopted in small quantities by the Union in the Civil War, favored for"
"Following a competitive examination of 104 guns in 1866, the British decided to adopt the Peabody-derived Martini-Henry with trap-door loading in 1871. Single-shot breech-loaders would be used throughout the latter half of the 19th century, but were slowly replaced by various designs for repeating rifles, first used in the American Civil War. Manual breech-loaders gave way to manual magazine feed and then to self-loading rifles. Breechloading is still commonly used in shotguns and hunting rifles. The first modern breech-loading rifled gun is a breech-loader invented by Martin von Wahrendorff with a cylindrical breech plug secured by a horizontal wedge in"
"to subsequent historic interpretations, secrecy, espionage, and international commercial interest. Henry Mohaupt Wolfdieter Hans-Jochem Mohaupt, known as Heinrich Mohaupt, in the U.S. Henry (Hans) Mohaupt (August 16, 1915 – May 20, 2001) was a Swiss American inventor. He first demonstrated and exhibited shaped charge warheads internationally before the Second World War. Prior to 1939, Mohaupt demonstrated his invention to British and French ordnance authorities. Concurrent development by the German group of Cranz, Schardin, and Thomanek led to the first documented use of shaped charges in warfare, in a successful assault on the fort of Eben Emael, on 10 May 1940."
"1837. In the 1850s and 1860s, Whitworth and Armstrong invented improved breech loading artillery. The M1867 naval guns produced in Imperial Russia at the Obukhov State Plant used Krupp technology. Breechloader A breechloader is a firearm in which the cartridge or shell is inserted or loaded into a chamber integral to the rear portion of a barrel. Modern mass production firearms are breech-loading (though mortars are generally muzzle-loaded), except those which are intended specifically by design to be muzzle-loaders, in order to be legal for certain types of hunting. Early firearms, on the other hand, were almost entirely muzzle-loading. The"
"world's navies: one was 11 feet, seven inches (3.5 m) in length with a diameter of 14 inches (35.5 cm). It weighed 346 pounds (157 kg) and carried a 40-pound (18.1 kg) warhead. The other was 14 feet (4.3 m) long with a 16-inch (40.6 cm) diameter. It weighed 650 pounds (295 kg) and carried a 60-pound (27.2 kg) warhead. Both models could do 8-10 knots (17 km/h) with a range of 200 yards (183 m). The United States Navy started using the Whitehead torpedo in 1892 after an American company, E. W. Bliss, secured manufacturing rights. As manufactured for"
"Ketchum Grenade The Ketchum Hand Grenade was a type of grenade used in the American Civil War. It was patented on August 20, 1861 by William F. Ketchum, a mayor of Buffalo, N.Y., and was partially adopted in the Union Army. They were used in battles such as Vicksburg and Petersburg (both major sieges in the war). The grenades have the appearance of a cast-iron ball, or a skinny dart, having fins of cardboard to stabilize the flight. They assured landing on the nose, which was backed by a percussion cap that set off the main powder charge in the"
"powered by compressed air. By 1868, Whitehead had solved the problem of depth control, and was offering his torpedo to the navies of the world. After trials from the sloop in September–October 1868, the Admiralty purchased a license to build Whitehead's torpedo, with production beginning at the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich, London in 1872. On 12 February 1872, the Admiralty placed an order for its first ship purpose designed for torpedo attack, HMS ""Vesuvius"". The new warship was intended for night attacks against enemy harbours, with the likely opponent being France. ""Vesuvius"" was long between perpendiculars, with a beam of"
"""Welman"". A document produced towards the end of World War II ensured that the right people were properly credited for their inventions at Station IX. This document reveals that the inventor of the Welrod was Major Hugh Reeves. He was also responsible other important designs, including the sleeve gun, which was similar to the Welrod, though single shot and made to conceal up a sleeve. Welrod The Welrod is a British bolt action, magazine fed, suppressed pistol devised during World War II at the Inter-Services Research Bureau (later Station IX), based near Welwyn Garden City, United Kingdom. Designed for use"
"in 1910. These are now closed. Whitehead opened a new factory near Portland Harbour, England in 1890, which continued making torpedoes until the end of World War II. Because orders from the RN were not as large as expected, torpedoes were mostly exported. A series of devices was produced at Fiume, with diameters from upward. The largest Whitehead torpedo was in diameter and long, made of polished steel or phosphor bronze, with a gun-cotton warhead. It was propelled by a three-cylinder Brotherhood engine, using compressed air at around and driving two contra-rotating propellers, and was designed to self-regulate its course"
"broadhead deploys its blades upon contact with the target, its blades swinging out to wound the target. The mechanical head flies better because it is more streamlined, but has less penetration as it uses some of the kinetic energy in the arrow to deploy its blades. Arrowhead An arrowhead is a tip, usually sharpened, added to an arrow to make it more deadly or to fulfill some special purpose. The earliest arrowheads were made of stone and of organic materials; as human civilization progressed other materials were used. Arrowheads are important archaeological artifacts; they are a subclass of projectile points."
"a cannon firing canister shot or grapeshot. Since they were still mounted on a carriage, they could be as hard to aim and move around as a cannon, and the many barrels took as long or longer to reload. They also tended to be relatively expensive since they were more complex than a cannon, due to all the barrels and ignition fuses, and each barrel had to be individually maintained and cleaned. The Gatling gun is one of the best-known early rapid-fire spring loaded, hand cranked weapons and a forerunner of the modern machine gun and rotary cannon. Invented by"
"Claims for priority of invention are difficult to resolve due to subsequent historic interpretations, secrecy, espionage, and international commercial interest. The first British HEAT weapon to be developed and issued was a rifle grenade using a cup launcher on the end of the rifle barrel; the Grenade, Rifle No. 68 /AT which was first issued to the British Armed Forces in the year 1940. This has some claim to have been the first HEAT warhead and launcher in use. The design of the warhead was simple and was capable of penetrating of armor. The fuze of the grenade was armed"
"until the Civil War. By 1861, however, the 1841 artillery system based on the 6-pounder was obsolete. In 1857, a new and more versatile fieldpiece, the 12‑pound gun‑howitzer (Napoleon), model 1857, appeared on the scene. Designed as a multipurpose piece to replace existing guns and howitzers, the Napoleon fired canister and shell, like the 12-pound howitzer, and solid shot comparable in range to the 12-pound gun. The Napoleon was a bronze, muzzle-loading smoothbore with an effective range of 1,619 yards (see table 3 for a comparison of artillery data). Served by a nine‑man crew, the piece could fire at a"
"20th century to the present, the largest of these being the 30mm GAU-8 Avenger autocannon. Gatling gun The Gatling gun is one of the best-known early rapid-fire spring loaded, hand cranked weapons and a forerunner of the modern machine gun and rotary cannon. Invented by Richard Gatling, it saw occasional use by the Union forces during the American Civil War in the 1860s, which was the first time it was employed in combat. Later, it was used again in numerous military conflicts, such as the Boshin War, the Anglo-Zulu War, and the assault on San Juan Hill during the Spanish–American"