patterns can now show a speed of 30 knots or more. The committee appointed by the Admiralty to conduct experiments with the first pair of torpedoes brought to England, after having tested them in various ways for a period extending over six months, reported that they believed that “any maritime nation failing to provide itself with submarine locomotive torpedoes, would be neglecting a great source of power, both for offence and defence.” Upon this recommendation the Admiralty immediately purchased from Mr. Whitehead for £15,000 the secret of the internal mechanism of his invention and the rights of manufacturing it. The self-adjusting apparatus within the steering chamber, by means of which the torpedo was kept at its due depth, was then a jealously-guarded secret; but when the arrangement with Mr. Whitehead was effected, the Government immediately set about the manufacture of these torpedoes on a large scale. The artificers employed in making the Whitehead torpedoes were now numerous, and the internal structure of these weapons could not advantageously be altogether concealed from those who had to handle them on board of the ships, so that it inevitably happened that some details of their construction leaked out, and came into the possession of other powers, whereupon all the maritime states followed the example of Great Britain by providing their navies with Whitehead or some such form of locomotive torpedo. It is no part of our plan to enter into the mechanical _minutiæ_ of the Whitehead torpedo. We may, however, give the reader such an idea of the external appearance and internal arrangement of the Whitehead torpedo as will enable him to appreciate to some extent the ingenuity and skill that have been brought to bear upon its construction.