OCR Text |
Show 'Can't Miss' Torpedo Repeats Attack if First Shot Fails Projectile Invented by John Hays Hammond, Jr. A"CANT-MISS" torpedo, one that would come back if it should miss on the first attempt, at-tempt, and strike the enemy battleship on the opposite side is described in a patent recently recent-ly granted in Washington, D. C., to John Hays Hammond, Jr., one of America's champion inventors who has a total of some 385 patents to his credit. The enemy ship itself would cause the errant torpedo to return for a strike. The inventor also reveals in his patent a method intended to control con-trol whole groups of torpedoes by radio, so that like an attacking squadron of airplanes, they may be maneuvered in v-shaped, echelon eche-lon (oblique), or an other formation, forma-tion, slowed up or speeded against any attacking fleet of battleships. Can Turn About. Only when a torpedo fails to make a direct hit, does a novel control device built in the torpedo go into operation to turn the torpedo tor-pedo about and redirect it to crash into the hull of the ship. This unique mechanism Inventor Hammond Ham-mond calls a "magnetic balance." It is connected to a long antenna which trails in the water behind the torpedo. The torpedo also has a wireless receiving mechanism by which the firing ship may steer the torpedo to the left or right according to the direction of movement of the enemy battleship. Thus, one dash on the radio signal turns the torpedo so many degrees to the left; two dashes, so 1 many degrees to the right, while a long dash operates mechanism which reduces the torpedo's speed. Is Radio Controlled. If a whole salvo is fired at once, the individual torpedoes may be arranged in any attacking formation forma-tion by the radio control. The "magnetic balance," which makes the torpedo turn an about face in case it misses, is a complicated com-plicated electrical mechanism so connected that it lies dormant until un-til there is a miss. If the torpedo passes the enemy ship the "magnetic "mag-netic balance" is upset by the magnetic disturbance which the nearness of the hull sets up. |