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TURKISH SOLDIERS.

THE NEW BRITISH IRONCLADS.

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TORPEDOES.

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TORPEDOES. Lieutenant F. Ingram Palmer, B.1I., delivered a lecture at the London Institution on the history of the torpedo. Although it appears that submarine ex- plosives were devised by the Chinese as far back as the time of their invention of gunpowder, it is to America that Europe owes the torpedo. The first three names connected with in earlier history are Americans— Buahntll, Foulton, and Colonel Colt, of revolver fame. In 1777 Bushnell arranged an apparatus for exploding gunpowder under water, but when it was practically tried against Lord Howe's ship Lion it proved a failure. In 1797 Robert Foulton took the subject up, and showed to Napoleon in 1801 the first success of which there ia record. In 1804 he brought his invention under the notice of Pitt, who favoured him with warm support, until a naval authority gave utterance to the opinion that Pitt was the greatest fool that ever lived to encourageamodeof war which they who commanded the seas did not need, and, if successful, would deprive them of it." Foulton received X15,000 with an ex- pression of thanks, and a suggestion that his services were no further needed. He went back to America, and by 1810 worked out two torpedo schemes, both of which depended on the mechanical ignition of the fuse. Colonel Colt in 1841 first suggested the em* ployment of galvanism to fire a charge of explosives, but nothing in the war of actual warfare was done till the Busaian war of 1854, when both mechanical and electrical torpedoes were used in the Black Sea and the Baltic. Her Majesty's ships Firefly and Merlin were both damaged, and on June 21,1855, a torpedo fished up exploded on the poop of her Majesty's ship Exmouth. In the American war tor- pedoes came to be recognised on both sides as instru- ments of warfare quite as important as rams, iron- clads, and big guns. In 1866, Captain McEvoy in- Tented a buoyant terpedo so arranged that when struck by a ship the cover, en being tilted off, fired a chemical fuse and exploded the charge. In December last he also invented and patented a torpedo which could be fired either at will by electricity or could be left to act mechanically. Gunpowder, gun-cotton, and dynamite are now all used as explosives. The latest improve- ment is the arrangement for steering a torpedo boat by electricity from a ship or fort, and exploding it when desired. The protections against torpedoes are networks around a ship to prevent approach, fishing them up, or counter-mining and exploding them. One of the latest developments is fer the torpedo boats to carry an apparatus for pumping crude petroleum on to shipa and igniting it by a special rocket. The mixture of fire and smoke drives the men from the guns, the torpedo boat can then approach closely without being fired on, can with one torpedo break away any surrounding protections there may be, and then can explode a torpedo under the ship. This crude petro- leum or "Greek fire," the lecturer stated he knew on good authority had been experimentally tried by the Russians, and he thought it was a matter calling for serious consideration that 142 powerful torpedo boats, to cost about .£5000 each, had been just ordered by Russia. Some of the machinery was contracted for in England, and the whole were to be ready in the course of a few weeks.

BREACH OF PROMISE.

EXECUTION AT WINCHESTER.

NAVAL PREPARATIONS.

ITHE DEFENCES OF 1SHE THAMES.

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THE BRADLAUGH-BESANT APPEAL.

A NEW ANIMAL.

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DOG LICENSES.

THE ORSINI BOMB OUTRAGE AT…

GROSS INHUMANITY IN A WORKHOUSE.".

A SHIP BURNT AT SEA.

THE SANDY POINT MUTINEERS.

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EXPLOSIONS IN MINES.

THE PHONOGRAPH.

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