Quote Originally Posted by Fast Fergie View Post
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One of his most famous inventions was a wire guided torpedo for coastal defence.
You can still see the Brennan Torpedo room in Camden Fort Meagher in Crosshaven, Co Cork. The Brennan torpedo was the first guided missle in the world and was installed at the fort to protect the entrance to Cork Harbour.

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This from Wikipedia...

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The Brennan torpedo was a torpedo patented by Irish-born Australian inventor Louis Brennan in 1877.

The Brennan torpedo is often claimed as the world's first guided missile, but guided torpedoes invented by John Ericsson, John Louis Lay, and Victor von Scheliha all predate it; however, Brennan's torpedo was much simpler in its concept and worked over an acceptable range at a satisfactory speed so it might be more accurate to call it the world's first practical guided missile.

Lay's first design, the Lay Torpedo or Lay Dirigible (1872) was a surface-running cylindrical vessel with conical ends, powered by a reciprocating engine fuelled by compressed carbon dioxide gas. Two cables were paid out from the torpedo to the controlling ship or shore station which allowed the operator to steer it by means of electrical signals.

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The modern torpedo with an onboard engine and an autonomous guidance system evolved from Whitehead's 1868 design. More from Wikipedia...

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Whitehead developed what he called the Minenschiff (mine ship): an 11-foot (3.4 m)-long, 14-inch (36 cm)-diameter torpedo propelled by compressed air and carrying an explosive warhead, with a speed of 7 knots (13 km/h; 8.1 mph) and the ability to hit a target up to 700 yards (640 m) away. In 1868, Whitehead introduced a solution to the stability problem for his torpedo: Pendulum-and-hydrostat control, contained in its Immersion Chamber. The Austrian Navy bought the manufacturing rights to the Whitehead torpedo in 1869. By 1870 Whitehead's torpedoes were running at 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph). Still, there remained the problem of course correction: returning the torpedo to its correct course after it had deviated due to wind or wave action. The solution was in the form of the gyroscope gear, which was patented by Ludwig Obry, the rights to which was bought by Whitehead in 1896.

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