Nineteenth Century Torpedoes and Their Inventors - Hardcover

Gray, Edwyn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1591143411 ISBN 13: 9781591143413

Publisher: Naval Institute Press, 2004

Synopsis

Although it forever changed the tactics of naval warfare, the torpedo is one of the world's most under-researched weapons and its inventors the most neglected. To correct this oversight, Edwyn Gray follows up on his popular study of Robert Whitehead's Torpedoes, by taking a look at seventy other torpedoes and the men who invented them. He traces the history of the torpedo, placing its evolution in the context of a defining century of weapons development when torpedoes progressed from harpoon projectiles to rocket powered weapons of destruction. <br><br>Written for layman and expert alike in the lively style Gray has come to be known for, the book reveals a wealth of fascinating, details about individual torpedoes along with a panorama of naval opinions and insights into the trials and tribulations of the weapon pioneers of the nineteenth century. Gray solves a number of mysteries that have bedevilled naval historians for decades and corrects longstanding misconceptions, based on information uncovered during ten years of research. <br><br>Gray examined more than one hundred U.S. and British patents taken out between 1836 and 1900 as well as reports from contemporary technical and professional journals and unpublished papers, and enlivens the text with accounts of torpedoes in action together with colourful anecdotes about the inventors. Such an important contribution to the history of this branch of naval ordnance helps make sense of a raggle-taggle collection of bizarre weapons that caused so much consternation among naval tacticians at the end of the nineteenth century.

About this title

Review:

"This book lovingly recounts the experiments, patents, trials and results, and is a fascinating read." -- The Daybook

Synopsis:

A British writer of fiction and nonfiction on naval themes, Gray traces the development of torpedoes from Robert Fulton's pioneering work in the early 1800s to 1900 when, he says, the weapons become too complex for an account that explicitly avoids technicalities inaccessible to general readers. Annotation 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (bookne

About this edition

• Publisher: Naval Institute Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1591143411
• ISBN 13: 9781591143413
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 232