The Whitehead Mark 1B torpedo, designated as a Torpedo Type B, was a variant of the

Whitehead Mark 1 torpedo The Whitehead Mark 1 torpedo was the first Whitehead torpedo adopted by the United States Navy for use in an anti-surface ship role after the E. W. Bliss Company of Brooklyn, New York secured manufacturing rights in 1892. The US Navy made an ini ...

adopted by the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

for use in an anti-surface ship role after the

E. W. Bliss Company The E. W. Bliss Company is a manufacturer of machine tools founded by Eliphalet Williams Bliss. The company was based in Brooklyn, New York and is now based in Hastings, Michigan as BCN Technical Services. BCN is owned by Schuler Group. History ...

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

secured manufacturing rights in 1892. The primary differences between the Mark 1 and the Mark 1B were that the Mark 1B was longer, carried a heavier

guncotton Nitrocellulose (also known as cellulose nitrate, flash paper, flash cotton, guncotton, pyroxylin and flash string, depending on form) is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to a mixture of nitric acid and ...

charge in the

warhead A warhead is the forward section of a device that contains the explosive agent or toxic (biological, chemical, or nuclear) material that is delivered by a missile, rocket, torpedo, or bomb. Classification Types of warheads include: * Explosiv ...

and included an improved

guidance system A guidance system is a virtual or physical device, or a group of devices implementing a controlling the movement of a ship, aircraft, missile, rocket, satellite, or any other moving object. Guidance is the process of calculating the changes in po ...

Characteristics

The Mark 1B was ordinarily assembled into three sections: the warhead, the air flask and the after-body. The warhead carried the explosive charge of wet

. The Mark 1B was a "cold-running" torpedo. The three-cylinder

reciprocating engine A reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is typically a heat engine that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the common featu ...

ran on cold,

compressed air Compressed air is air kept under a pressure that is greater than atmospheric pressure. Compressed air is an important medium for transfer of energy in industrial processes, and is used for power tools such as air hammers, drills, wrenches, and o ...

which was stored in the air flask at 1350 pounds per square inch. The after-body carried the engine and the tail, which contained the

propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

s. The Mark 1B guidance component included the

Pendulum-and-hydrostat control Pendulum-and-hydrostat control is a control mechanism developed originally for depth control of the Whitehead torpedo. It is an early example of what is now known as proportional and derivative control. The hydrostat is a mechanism that senses pr ...

device which was called the "Whitehead Secret" and, for the last forty units of the production, the Obry steering

gyro Gyro may refer to: Science and technology * GYRO, a computer program for tokamak plasma simulation * Gyro Motor Company, an American aircraft engine manufacturer * ''Gyrodactylus salaris'', a parasite in salmon * Gyroscope, an orientation-stabi ...

for

azimuth An azimuth (; from ar, اَلسُّمُوت, as-sumūt, the directions) is an angular measurement in a spherical coordinate system. More specifically, it is the horizontal angle from a cardinal direction, most commonly north. Mathematicall ...

control. This device reduced the maximum deviation right or left of the target from 24 to 8 yards. The Mark 1B was launched from

battleship A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...

s and

torpedo boat A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of se ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitehead Mark 1B torpedo Torpedoes Torpedoes of the United States Unmanned underwater vehicles Whitehead torpedoes

Characteristics

See also

References