Published Resources Details Journal Article
- Title
- The Whitehead Fish Torpedo
- In
- Engineering
- Imprint
- vol. 29, 7 May 1880, p. 360
- Description
Accession No.2266
- Abstract
'We understand that the Secretary of State for War has awarded to Mr. R. Wilson, Sen., of Messrs. Nasmyth, Wilson, and Co., of Patricroft, the sum of 500l. in consideration of having applied his patent double screw propellers to the Whitehead fish torpedoes. The high speed of 27 knots which has been attained by these torpedoes is no doubt to a very large extent due to the use of these double screws.' This single paragraph entry in Engineering is particularly important as it is one of the first, if not the first public acknowledgment of Robert Wilson's important contribution to torpedo warfare (see Edwyn Gray's 19th Century Torpedoes and Their Inventors, pp. 62-84).