Engineer Giovanni Luppis had produced the first…
1866 CE
Luppis' device is a low-profile surface boat, propelled by compressed air, and controlled by ropes from the land.
Robert Whitehead and Luppis form a partnership to perfect the torpedo as an effective weapon.
Whitehead's initial torpedo experiments had been conducted with the help of his twelve-year-old son, John, and a workman, Annibale Ploech.
They had discarded Luppis' concept of shore launch and control for an unguided weapon launched from a ship on a straight line at the target.
This has resulted in Minenschiff, the first self-propelled (locomotive) torpedo, officially presented to the Austrian Imperial Naval commission on December 21, 1866.
The commission is impressed.
Whitehead, born the son of a cotton-bleacher, in Bolton, England, had trained as an engineer and draftsman, and had attended the Mechanics Institute in Manchester.
His first professional employment had been at a shipyard in Toulon, France, and then as a consultant engineer in Milan, Italy.
He then moved to Trieste, on the Adriatic coast of Austria.
Whitehead's work in Trieste had been noticed by the owners of Fonderia Metalli, a metal foundry in the nearby city of Fiume (today Rijeka, Croatia).
In 1856, Whitehead had become manager of the company, and had changed its name to Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume (STF).
STF produces marine steam boilers and engines, which are the most modern products of that era.
The Austrian Navy is a customer.
In the early 1860s, Whitehead had met Luppis, who had recently retired to Trieste from the Austrian Navy.