Popular Science Monthly

���TORPEDO CONTROL ,LENo SE. CELLS , ,/^

��NION I W < < —

\

��SCREEN-

��^U-X^OTOR

��\

��IS

��iC

��'■'^-^ ^ o.^^ r^ntyrynnr^ry n n n

��^

��P

��-.■y -, nnn n i

��SE^CELLS , LENS^

��y---^-

��ORIENTATOR FOR TORPEDO DIRECTOR

���As a human being, you have the power of running toward the thing that you see. You have eyes — organs sensitive to light. Suppose a torpedo had eyes. Suppose that it were given the power

A Torpedo with Eyes

By Walter Bannard

��SUPPOSE we have at our command torpedoes that obey the orders of a single master ; torpedoes that heed faithfully the wish of an operator ex- pressed through a simple directing ap- paratus; torpedoes that can be projected six or eight miles through the water, be- ing constantly under the control of the man and his machine on shore ; in a word, torpedoes which carry out the in- tention of one man to destroy an oncom- ing vessel of the enemy. This torpedo would simply be the projection mechan- ically, of this man's will to destroy that vessel.

Theoretically, we have the materials

��at hand to render this achievement pos- sible. In fact, the "light-directed tor- pedo," as it is called, is virtually on the threshold of reality, but it has not yet crossed the threshold. This delay is caused by the present unreliability of a chemical substance, selenium, and it is upon selenium that the eventual success of the light-directed torpedo depends. In an article on the Hammond electric dog, appearing elsewhere in this issue, will be found an explanation of the way in which selenium does the work.

A boat has been directed wirelessly from shore — most all of us have read of that — and a boat can be directed by wire-

�� �