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Robert Whitehead
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Robert Whitehead

British engineer
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Quick Facts
Born:
Jan. 3, 1823, Bolton-le-Moors, Lancashire, Eng.
Died:
Nov. 14, 1905, Beckett, Berkshire
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Robert Whitehead (born Jan. 3, 1823, Bolton-le-Moors, Lancashire, Eng.—died Nov. 14, 1905, Beckett, Berkshire) was a British engineer who invented the modern torpedo.

In 1856, after serving an apprenticeship in Manchester and working in Marseille, Milan, and Trieste, he organized, with local capital, a marine-engineering works, Stabilimento Tecnico Fiumano, in Fiume (now Rijeka, Croatia). There he successfully designed and built engines for Austrian warships and began to work on a torpedo, which he completed in 1866. In 1872 he bought the firm and turned it into a manufacturer of torpedoes and accessories. In 1876 he improved his vehicles by using a servo-motor that gave them a truer course through the water, and he gradually increased their speed to 29 knots for 1,000 yards. In 1896 he used a gyroscope to control the course of a torpedo.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.