Robert Whitehead

Robert Whitehead , English engineer born in Bolton (Lancashire) on January 3rd, 1823, is the originator of the first self-propelled Torpille naval (1866).

An early mechanical direction

Resulting from a family of small industrialists of the cotonde the area of Manchester, it makes primary studies in Bolton between 1829 and 1837. Very early it expresses much interest for the steam engines which are in action in many factories around Bolton.
is sixteen years old it undertakes a long training at Ormerod and Fils in Manchester. It acquires there a solid hands-on training in draftsmanship and mechanics, supplemented by part-time courses with the Manchester Mechanical Institute.
In 1846, he marries Frances Maria Johnson and the same year leaves for France. He works some time for a shipyard of Toulon before leaving for Milan, where he exerts as independent engineer in fields as various as the machines for textile industry in full rise or the drainage in Lombardie.
Italy east then in prey with frequent disorders, aiming to release it from the Austrian yoke. The increasing insecurity which reigns in Milan led Robert Whitehead and his family to leave the city to go to be established in Trieste.

A capital meeting

Employed by the foundry Fonderia Metalli , it takes of it the direction in 1856 and makes him change name. From now on it is called Stabilimento Technico Fiumano . It is devoted to the production of steam boilers for the navy, of steam engines and ship hulls. Its growing notoriety takes a dimension européenne.
quickly It is contacted by the Austrian navy in 1864 to contribute to the improvement of a coastal defense system. It is about a new weapon intended for the attack of ships to damping or sailing close to the coast. It is a kind of floating mine propelled by a system with spring or the compressed air and directed since the shore by cables.
The inventor of the project and the first prototypes is an Austrian captain with the retirement, Giovanni Biagio Luppis. Luppis and Whitehead will collaborate during a time to develop the " coastsaver". But following repeated failures, Robert Whitehead will continue only and reconsider the problem with for discussion thread the idea according to which the weapon must move under water to reach the target under the line of flottaison.
Assisted from its young person John wire, it will improve the development during months of an automobile underwater weapon.

Prototypes with the first successes

In 1866 it successfully tries out the first self-propelled torpedo by compressed air, designed to be launched directly by a submerged tube. Multiple failures led it to improve its prototypes unceasingly: thus it uses a hydrostatic valve associated with a beam to make sail the torpedo with a constant depth preset thanks to a spring. She traverses 200 yards with 6,5 noeuds.
In 1868, after a series of tests the Austrian navy places a first order. Robert Whitehead, conscious of the commercial potential of his invention preserves the rights to sell with others pays.
La Royal Navy, which heard of the demonstrations of its torpedes invites it in 1869 in a trial run in England. He presents the models 14" (355 mm) and 16" (406 mm) of diameter. It obtains a large contract and manufacture under license in England as from 1872.

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