-
21 Whitehead, Robert
SUBJECT AREA: Weapons and armour[br]b. 3 January 1823 Bolton-le-Moors, Lancashire, Englandd. 19 November 1903 Shrivenham, Wiltshire, England[br]English inventor of the torpedo.[br]At the age of 14 Whitehead was apprenticed by his father, who ran a cotton-bleaching business, to an engineering firm in Manchester. He moved in 1847 to join his uncle, who was the Manager of another engineering firm, and three years later Whitehead set up on his own in Milan, where he made mechanical improvements to the silk-weaving industry and designed drainage machines for the Lombardy marshes.In 1848 he was forced to move from Italy because of the revolution and settled in Fiume, which was then part of Austria. There he concen-. trated on designing and building engines for warships, and in 1864 the Austrians invited him to participate in a project to develop a "floating torpedo". In those days the torpedo was synonymous with the underwater mine, and Whitehead believed that he could do better than this proposal and produce an explosive weapon that could propel itself through the water. He set to work with his son John and a mechanic, producing the first version of his torpedo in 1866. It had a range of only 700 yd (640 m) and a speed of just 7 knots (13 km/h), as well as depth-keeping problems, but even so, especially after he had reduced the last problem by the use of a "balance chamber", the Austrian authorities were sufficiently impressed to buy construction rights and to decorate him. Other navies quickly followed suit and within twenty years almost every navy in the world was equipped with the Whitehead torpedo, its main attraction being that no warship, however large, was safe from it. During this time Whitehead continued to improve on his design, introducing a servo-motor and gyroscope, thereby radically improving range, speed and accuracy.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsOrder of Max Joseph (Austria) 1868. Légion d'honneur 1884. Whitehead also received decorations from Prussia, Denmark, Portugal, Italy and Greece.Further ReadingDictionary of National Biography, 1912, Vol. 3, Suppl. 2, London: Smith, Elder.CM
- 1
- 2
См. также в других словарях:
Twenty-first Texas Legislature — The Twenty first Texas Legislature met from 8 January to 6 April 1889 in regular session. All members of the House of Representatives and a portion of the members of the Senate were elected in the 1888 General Election.essions* 20th Regular… … Wikipedia
The Twenty-Twenty Corporation — is a nonprofit organization based in Baltimore, Maryland. The organization serves the youth residing in the Baltimore Washington Metropolitan Area. The organization focuses its efforts on its two primary youth centered missions: positive… … Wikipedia
The Twenty-Second Day — infobox Book | name = The Twenty Second Day title orig = اليوم الثاني و العشرون author = Muhammad Aladdin cover artist = Ahmad Al Lapad country = Egypt language = Arabic series = genre = Novel publisher = [http://elainpublishing.comِEl Ain]… … Wikipedia
The Tomorrow People — is a children s science fiction television series, devised by Roger Price which first ran between 1973 and 1979. The show was re imagined between 1992 and 1995, this time with Roger Price as executive producer. A third incarnation that ran… … Wikipedia
Twenty-One Demands — The nihongo|Twenty One Demands|対華二十一ヵ条要求|Taika Nijyūichikkajō Yōkyū were a set of demands made by the Empire of Japan under Prime Minister Ōkuma Shigenobu sent to the nominal government of the Republic of China on January 18 1915, resulting in… … Wikipedia
First Vision — The First Vision (also called the grove experience) is a religious belief held by many members of the Latter Day Saint movement (commonly called Mormonism) that God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to the fourteen year old Joseph Smith, Jr.… … Wikipedia
The New Criterion — Editors and publishers Hilton Kramer and Roger Kimball Former editors Hilton Kramer and Samuel Lipman Categories Literary journal … Wikipedia
The Rime of King William — is an Old English poem that tells the death of William the Conqueror. The Rime was a part of the only entry for the year of 1087 (though improperly dated 1086) in the “Peterborough Chronicle/Laud Manuscript.” In this entry there is a thorough… … Wikipedia
First Lyons Ministry — The First Lyons Ministry was the twenty first Australian Commonwealth ministry, and ran from 6 January 1932 to 12 October 1934.United Australia Party*Rt Hon Joseph Lyons, MP: Prime Minister, Treasurer. Minister for Commerce (3 October 1932 to 13… … Wikipedia
The Blind Boys of Alabama — performing at the Quebec City Summer Festival in 2008. Background information Origin Alabama … Wikipedia
The Black Book of Communism — The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression is a book which describes a history of repressions, both political and civilian, by Communist states, including extrajudicial executions, deportations, and artificial famines. The book was… … Wikipedia
