frigate, exploded, demolished the schooner, and threw overboard the only man of her crew who was left alive. Among all of Bushnell's various devices, he does not appear to have invented anything that would follow an enemy's ship at sea. One of his last recorded exploits was his setting adrift, in December, 1777, on the Delaware, a number of kegs filled with powder, for the purpose of annoying the enemy's vessels. Although they did no harm, these infernal machines frightened the soldiers on the wharves at Philadelphia, who opened fire on the intruders. The event gave occasion to the poetical satire of Francis Hopkinson, called "The Battle of the Kegs.". Mr. Bushnell was the great torpedo genius of his day, but his contrivances would in our times be considered very primitive affairs, as they bear about the same relation to the torpedoes now in use as the old "Brown Bess" musket does to the Remington rifle.

After these experiments of Bushnell the torpedo seems to have been neglected till, in 1797, Robert Fulton claimed as his invention a machine which would move under water, to a given point, and there explode. Fulton first applied to the French Government, and promised to furnish them with an agent by which they could dispose of their British enemies in all parts of the world. His schemes were considered chimerical, and he met with no encouragement in France until Napoleon attained power, when a commission was ordered to test his machine in 1801. It was a submarine diver, many forms of which have since been tried without much success. With his machine Fulton repeatedly descended to various depths, and moved in any desired direction under water, remaining there for four or five hours at a time. After fitting a torpedo to this machine, his first experiment was on a small ship, to which he attached twenty pounds of powder and blew her into fragments. Fulton's system was, however, merely an improvement on that of Bushnell; and it seems strange that, with his knowledge of steam, he did not apply it for propelling his machine. Had he hit upon some of the simple devices now familiar to all, he might have produced an engine that would have scattered any of the fleets of Europe, and the name of Fulton would have become even more famous than it now is.

The French Government failing to see the practicability of

Fulton's submarine devices, the inventor left in disgust, and, repairing to England in May, 1804, held out to the British ministry the same inducements by which he had endeavored to influence that of France, showing them how they could dispense with their fleets! John Bull, however, had a great partiality for his navy, and delighted in gaining victories at sea. The naval authorities were therefore indisposed to encourage Yankee innovations, but Fulton succeeded in interesting Mr. Pitt, the primeminister, in his enterprise, and in impressing that statesman with the belief that the torpedo principle, when fully reduced to practice, would do away with all the navies of the world. The first experiments were carried on in presence of Mr. Pitt, Lords Mulgrave, Melville, and Castlereagh, Sir Joseph Banks, Mr. Cavendish, Sir Home Popham, Major Congreve, and Sir John Rennie. On this commission, which was to decide the fate of navies, there was but one naval officer, Admiral Sir Home Popham, which is an evidence that it was constituted on much the same principle as like commissions in this country, viz., that of appointing as judges men the least likely to know anything of the matter in hand. Mr. Pitt was favorably impressed with Fulton's experiments, and so were some others who witnessed them; but Admiral the Earl St. Vincent remarked that it was foolish for Pitt to encourage that gimcrack, for so he was laying the foundation. for doing away with the navy on which depended the strength and prestige of Great Britain. The commission acted in accordance with this idea, and adjudged Fulton's plans to be impracticable. Mr. Pitt still adhered to his own opinion, and caused an experiment to be made, on October 15, 1805, on an old Danish brig, which was blown to pieces by one hundred and seventy pounds of powder, a result which could now be effected with twenty pounds of gun-cotton on the end of a pole. Notwithstanding this success Fulton gained no encouragement. England was already mistress of the seas, and looked with little favor on an instrument of warfare which, if successful, would place weaker nations on an equality with her. English authorities, however, saw the importance of Fulton's invention, and, it is said, offered him a large sum of money to suppress it, but he declined.

Fulton returned to New York in 1806, and made propositions to the United States Government, which were accepted, and,

after many unsuccessful efforts, he finally blew up a vessel which had been prepared for the purpose. A midshipman, nowadays, at our torpedo-school in Newport, would consider himself disgraced if he failed to destroy a ship-of-the-line in ten minutes, with less explosive power, especially if the ship lay at anchor and gave him every opportunity to operate upon her. Fulton again petitioned Congress for assistance to develop his invention, and five thousand dollars was in 1810 appropriated for that purpose. He seems never to have doubted his final success, although his numerous failures prevented his most ardent admirers from placing full faith in his promises. In fact, when we consider the crudeness of his ideas, and his repeated mishaps, it seems strange that Fulton's applications should have continued to receive attention. The United States brig Argus was prepared for Fulton's final experiment, which totally failed, for, by order of Commodore Rodgers, the vessel had been so protected with spars and netting, reaching to the bottom, as to be unassailable. Fulton acknowledged himself to have been foiled by the commodore's ingenuity, but argued that "a system then in its infancy, which compelled a hostile vessel to guard herself by such extraordinary means, could not fail of becoming a most important mode of warfare."

Commodore Rodgers's successful effort to baffle Fulton's torpedo caused a strong reaction against the inventor's plans. Fulton became disheartened, and, in a characteristic letter to the Secretary of the Navy, rather intimates a want of fair-play as well as of due consideration for an invention of such importance to a small naval power like that of the United States. He then devoted his attention to the subject of steam-navigation, which has given him so great a reputation. Although Fulton's experiments in torpedoes were not as successful as might have been expected from the talents of the man, yet his efforts were in the right direction, and, had he been liberally patronized, he might have changed the whole face of modern warfare; but naval men seventy years ago, whether in this country or abroad, saw no prospect in the success of Fulton's schemes but the destruction of the service which was their pride and glory, and it is hardly to be wondered at that all plans to destroy ships by other means than the legitimate eighteen-pounder were looked upon with disfavor. So the torpedo slept for many years; but in time it reappeared, in

vested with such deadly attributes that no nation could afford to disregard its claims as the most destructive implement of naval warfare yet devised.

In a remarkable letter to Joel Barlow, dated "New York, August 22, 1807," Fulton says, after describing his celebrated steam-voyage up the Hudson:

"However, I will not admit that it" (steam-navigation) "is half so important as the torpedo system of defense and attack; for out of this will grow the liberty of the seas-an object of infinite importance to the welfare of America and every civilized country. But thousands of witnesses have now seen the steamboat in rapid movement, and they believe; but they have not seen a ship-of-war destroyed by a torpedo, and they do not believe. We cannot expect people in general to have knowledge of physics or power to reason from cause to effect; but, in case we have war, and the enemy's ships come into our waters, if the Government will give me reasonable means of action, I will soon convince the world that we have surer and cheaper modes of defense than they are aware of."

Fulton must have been zealous indeed for the torpedo when he could consider it of more importance than the invention of the steamboat, that has given quick and cheap transportation to our merchants, has opened up the treasures on the banks of innumerable rivers, has instituted commerce with every portion of the world, and has given us the power, if we knew how to wield it, to establish great lines of ocean-steamers, which would make us at least the equal of any nation on earth.

But we must turn from Fulton and his plans, to consider more modern inventions, which have established the importance of torpedo warfare beyond cavil. During the War of 1812 many attempts were made to blow up the British vessels-of-war by means of improvised torpedoes, powder-vessels, etc., but none of these had much effect on the enemy. The principal result was to cause retaliatory measures on the part of the British, as the latter considered all such methods of making war barbarous, and inconsistent with modern civilization. Besides, these attempts were mostly unauthorized by our Government, and disapproved by the navy, who preferred the more chivalric method of sinking

vessels with eighteen and twenty-four pounders, or mowing down their crews with grape and canister.

In 1829 the torpedo was again revived by Samuel Colt, the inventor of the pistol which bears his name, who commenced his experiments by exploding an iron torpedo by means of galvanism, destroying, at the first trial, the old gunboat Boxer, off the Battery at New York. On the 20th of August, 1842, in presence of the cabinet and citizens of Washington, he utterly destroyed a schooner off Alexandria, Virginia, while stationed five miles from her. Congress was so much impressed with Colt's experiments that they voted him seventeen thousand dollars to perfect his apparatus. Mr. Colt was much abused by the humanitarians of his day, among whom was John Quincy Adams, who denounced him in unmeasured terms for his "dishonest and cowardly system of warfare." Colt and Fulton-that "Guy Fawkes afloat" -were spoken of as men who would discredit the glorious traditions of our navy, and substitute a set of catamarans for the noble frigates that had carried our flag to victory, and were the pride of the nation. Those who object to the torpedo are about as consistent as the Quaker who in battle refused to assist in fighting the guns, but who, when the enemy attempted to board, collared the leader, and pitched him into the sea, saying, "Friend, thee has no business here." Colt's last and most remarkable effort was in blowing up a vessel of five hundred tons, while under sail and going five knots an hour on the Potomac River; but the naval and military authorities discountenanced further proceedings toward the development of Colt's system; and the inventor, having turned over to the Government all his plans and methods of working his galvanic batteries, which seem at this time very simple devices, devoted himself to the more lucrative business of manufacturing the revolver, which has quite revolutionized the system of small-arms then in use. Colt's plan for harbordefense is somewhat similar to that which is now in use. His torpedoes were arranged in groups, but the present plan of firing is much more simple and efficient.

One of Fulton's ideas was to fire his torpedoes by electricity; but the subject was not so well understood then as now, and he never succeeded in arranging a battery that would insure ignition of the fuses.