Robert Whitehead
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Robert_Whitehead_with_battered_test_torpedo_Fiume_c1875.jpg
Robert_Whitehead_with_battered_test_torpedo_Fiume_c1875.jpg
Robert Whitehead (right) with a battered test torpedo, Fiume, c1875
Robert Whitehead (January 3, 1823 - November 14, 1905), British engineer. He invented in 1866 the first modern torpedo.
In 1864 Whitehead accepted the job as manager of a major engineering company in Rijeka. The company undertook work for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. In the same year he made a contract with the local engineer Ivan Lupis-Vukić in order to perfect Lupis invention of the first prototypes of a self-propelled torpedo in 1860. This resulted in Minenschiff, the first self-propelling torpedo, officially presented to the Imperial Naval commission on December 21, 1866.