Whitehead, Robert (1823–1905)

English engineer who invented the self-propelled torpedo in 1866. He devised methods of accurately firing torpedoes either above or below water from the fastest ships, no matter what the speed or bearing of the target.

Whitehead developed the torpedo for the Austrian Empire. Typically it was 4 m/13 ft long, could carry a 9-kg/20-lb dynamite warhead, and by 1889 had a speed of 29 knots. It was powered by compressed air and had a balancing mechanism and, later, gyroscopic controls. In 1876 he developed a servomotor, which controlled the steering gear and gave the torpedo a truer path through the water.

Whitehead was born in Bolton, Lancashire, and apprenticed to an engineering company. In 1847 he set up his own business in Milan (then part of Austria), moving to Trieste in 1848 and Fiume in 1856. Whitehead designed pumps for draining part of the Lombardy marshes and made improvements to silk-weaving looms. From 1856, in Fiume, he built naval marine engines; he designed and built the engines of the ironclad warship Ferdinand Max.