Torpedo

A modern torpedo, historically called a self-propelled torpedo, is a self-propelled guided projectile that (after being launched above or below the water surface) operates underwater and is designed to detonate on contact or in proximity to a target. Torpedoes are weapons that may be launched from submarines, surface ships, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, unmanned naval mines and naval fortresses

Etymology

The word torpedo comes from the Torpedo genus of electric rays in the order Torpediniformes, which in turn comes from the Latin "torpere", to be stiffened or paralyzed. There is no physical resemblance between the ray and the mechanical torpedo.

Related Topics:
Electric ray - Torpediniformes - Latin

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In naval usage, the term "torpedo" was first used by Robert Fulton who used the word for the towed gunpowder charge used by his submarine Nautilus in 1800–1805 to demonstrate that it could sink warships.

Related Topics:
Robert Fulton - Submarine - Nautilus - 1800 - 1805

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The term became generally used to refer to tethered naval mines, developed in the American Civil War in the 1860s by Matthew F. Maury, a Confederate Admiral (these are what David Farragut was referring to when he ordered his men to "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead"). This use of the word to refer to what are now called "mines" lasted until World War I. As self-propelled torpedoes were developed the tethered variety was referred to as "stationary torpedo" and later "mine".

Related Topics:
Naval mine - American Civil War - 1860s - Matthew F. Maury - Confederate - Admiral - David Farragut - World War I

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The Bangalore Torpedo, invented in 1912, is a cylindrical explosive device` on the end of a pipe used to clear minefields and barbed wire. As such it can be considered a land form of the spar torpedo.

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