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Ericsson's New Torpedo Boat

Ericsson's New Torpedo Boat image
Parent Issue
Day
23
Month
December
Year
1880
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Captain John Ericsson is experimenting in New York harbor with the most formidable engine of death known in naval warfare. The inventor of the monitor is one of the most modest and unpretentious mechanicians'of the age, and is not likely to exaggerate the merits of his own work. He is entirely satisüed with the resulta of the recent experimenta with his torpedo boat, and some of the most experienced naval officers in the Uaited States service do not hesitate to pronounce it an unequi vocal success. It will be seen tnat Captain Ericsson bas invented three things - a boat, a gun and a projectile. The boat is submerged like a monitor, with all the machinery below an intermedíate deck of plate iron which is strongly ribbed and supports inclined armor plates. The deck-house above the water has no ports at the sides, and can be shot away without the vessel belng disabled. Heavy wood backing gives additional protection to the wheel, and the electric battery and the steering gear are ten feet below the water line. Attacking bows on, and defying with her armor the heaviest ordnance, the destróyer is practican ly invulnerable, and at the same time a most terrible antagonist. Her armament consists of a single breech-loader of wrought iron, hooped with steel, and a bore of sixteeu inchcs. This gun lies seven feet under water, and discharges a projectile contaiuing 250 pounds of dynamite. Wlien the boat, with its crew ef ten men, is within 300 or 400 feet of the enemy, the gun is iired by electricitv, and the projectile explodes by concussion. If the first shot fails, another follows in a lew minutes, and the torpedo boinbardmeiit proceeds with extraordinary rapidity, no time being wasted in charging the gun. The substitution of gunpowder for compressed air in the operationof chaigingthegun vastly increases the efficiency of the armament. It may not be too much to say that it leaves the mightiest iron ships of the world completely at her mercy.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Democrat