History
The concept of a torpedo existed many centuries before it was developed as a working device. The earliest description is found in the works of Syrian engineer Hassan al-Rammah in 1275. He described various kinds of incendiary arrows and lances, and illustrated what has been supposed to be a torpedo, which al-Rammah called "the egg which moves itself and burns", with the text suggesting that it was intended to move on the surface of water. In a 2011 episode of Mythbusters, Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage constructed a replica of al-Rammah's torpedo and after several tries, discovered it was indeed a plausible weapon.
Before the invention of the self-propelled torpedo the term was applied to any number of different types of explosive devices, generally having the property of being secret or hidden, including devices which today would include booby traps, land mines and naval mines.
Read more about this topic: Torpedo
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