19th Century Torpedoes and Their Inventors

19th Century Torpedoes and Their Inventors. By Edwyn Gray. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2004. ISBN 1-59114-341-1. Illustrations. Figures. Appendix. Notes. Biblography. Index. Pp. x, 248. $32.95.

By 1900, the name of English expatriate engineer Robert Whitehead had become synonymous with the torpedo and Whitehead's torpedo company in Fiume, Italy, held a virtual monopoly on torpedo manufacture. Whitehead's prominence at the time and in the historical literature has obscured the efforts of his many rivals who also sought to develop mobile weapons intended to sink enemy vessels by hitting them below the waterline. In this extensively researched volume, Edwyn Gray seeks to flesh out the historical record by profiling the numerous other inventors who contributed to the evolution of the torpedo as they sought to circumvent Whitehead's monopoly. He places particular emphasis on...