The devil's device torpedo

Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains , pages of information and , images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them. Robert Whitehead January 3, — November 14, was an English engineer who developed the first successful self-propelled torpedo.

James was the son of Robert Whitehead Sr. At the age of 16 he was apprenticed to Richard Ormerod , engineers and ironfounders of Manchester. He trained as an engineer and draughtsman, and attended Manchester's Mechanics Institute. They had seven children, two of whom died young. He next moved to Milan, Italy, and set up as an independent consultant engineer, specialising in textile machinery.

He also advised on the draining of the Lombardy marshes. Civil disorder arose in Milan, in protest against the Austro-Hungarian empire, and Whitehead moved with his family to Trieste, on the Adriatic coast, where he concentrated on the design of marine steam engines.

Robert whitehead football

In Whitehead accepted the job as manager of the company. He also changed its name to Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume , and began producing steam boilers and engines for ships. The company undertook work for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. He made a contract with engineer Giovanni Biagio Luppis , a retired captain of the Austrian Navy, in order to develop Luppis' invention of the first prototypes of a self-propelled torpedo.

The weapon was a low profile surface boat, propelled by compressed air [clockwork?