Buy this book on-line GRAY**, EDWIN: : The Devil's Device - The story of the invention of the torpedo.**LONDON.SEELEY SERVICE,1975. ISBN 0854221042
UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.VG/VG.No owner inscrptn to front,inner dw/dj flap but unusually a previous owner's neat,ink name to dw/dj's rear,inner flap and price-clipped to front flap.Book is slightly cocked.Top+fore-edges both aged and slightly grubbed,contents generally bright and clean.Unblemished,plain black paper-covered boards with bright,crisp,stamped gilt letters to spine/backstrip and near immaculate plain white endpapers with no hint of off-set foxing from dw/dj's inner flaps.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,253pp,b/w contemporary illustrations and photographs.
The story of Robert Whitehead,inventor of the torpedo.Without the torpedo,the submarine would still be a nautical toy of little military value and 25,706,096 tons of merchant shipping might not be rusting on the sea-bed.Without the torpedo
Jutland could well have been an overwhelming British victory and the Battle of the Atlantic need never had been
fought.Whitehead,a relatively unknown engineer exerted more influence over the tactics of naval warfare and the design of
warships than all the world's top Admirals
and naval architects put together.And the weapon he created twice brought Britain to
the verge of defeat.Gray tells,for the first time,the story of Whitehead's life tracing the the development of the torpedo from it's birth to today's missile age.
A hard working engineer from Bolton-le- Moor,Lancashire,benevolent and devoted family man who proudly watched his children marry into the cream of European Society.A self-made millionaire with extravagant and eccentric tastes,by his single-minded determination gave the world's Admirals the 'Devil's Device' - a weapon he fondly believed would make warfare at sea something too terrible to contemplate. Little did he realise he was to become one of the greatest single architects of destruction in the history of mankind.Book fills an important gap in naval history and brings due,if belated, honour to Robert Whitehead.See also rja2102 another example.
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Click here for full details of this book, to ask a question or to buy it on-line. Bibliophile Bookbase probably offers multiple copies of GRAY**, EDWIN: : The Devil's Device - The story of the invention of the torpedo.**. Click here to select from a complete list of available copies of this book. GRAY**, EDWIN: : THE DEVIL'S DEVICE - The Story of the invention of the torpedo.**LONDON.SEELEY SERVICE & CO. LTD.,1975. ISBN 0854221042.
UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.NFINE/FINE.No owner inscrptn,and no price-clip to dw/dj. 4-colour block (blue,orange,black+white) pictorial illustrated upper wrap artwork by Crispin Rose-Innes,with a lightly grubbed plain white rear wrap,dw/dj with minimal shelf-wear and negligible creases to edges - no nicks or tears present. Head+foot of spine/backstrip minisculely bumped with reciprocal creasing as usual/ normal.Top edge lightly dust-soiled - as usual/normal - and lightly foxed/spotted; fore-edge considerably cleaner without foxing/ spotting,contents bright,tight and near pristine.Unblemished plain black paper-covered boards with bright,crisp, blocked gilt letters to spine/backstrip and immaculate plain white endpapers with no hint of off-set foxing from dw/dj's inner flaps.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,9- 253pp includes half-title+ title pages, contents+illustrations lists,author's note,12pp contemporary b/w illustrations and photographs,15 chapters, appendices(3) and an index.
Without the torpedo the submarine would still be a nautical toy of little military value and 25,706,096 tons of merchant shipping might not be rusting on the bottom of the sea.Without the torpedo Jutland could well have been an overwhelming British victory and the Battle of the Atlantic need never have been fought.
Webster's Biographical Dictionary dismisses the creator of this devastating weapon in one curt sentence: 'Robert Whitehead,English inventor,invented a self-propelled underwater torpedo.'
Yet this relatively unknown engineer exerted more influence over the tactics of naval warfare and the design of warships than all the world's top admirals and naval architects put together.And the weapon he created twice brought Britain to the verge of defeat.
Edwin Gray,a noted naval historian and author of 'The Killing Time and 'A Damned Un-English Weapon',tells,for the first time,the absorbing story of Robert
Whitehead's fascinating life and traces,in layman's terms,the development of the torpedo from its birth to its place in today's missile age.There was little in Whitehead's benevolent character to suggest that he was destined to become one of the greatest single architects of destruction in the history of mankind.A hard-working practical engineer from Bolton-le-Moors in Lancashire,a devoted family man who watched proudly as his children married into the cream of European Society,and a self-made millionaire with extravagant and eccentric tastes,by his single-minded determination he gave the world's admirals the 'Devil's Device' - a weapon that he fondly believed would make warfare at sea something too terrible to contemplate.It is not a peaceful story,for violence is the essence of torpedo warfare but it fills an important gap in naval history and brings due,if belated,honour to Robert Whitehead. See also rja430 another example.
Please contact seller,because of the value of this item,for correct,insured shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page!
** N.B. ALL buyers please note,stocks' actual shipping/P+p costs are adjusted and any difference is refunded,after order's receipt and before the order's despatch,especially if the item(s) are offered either P+p included/FREE.
** N.B. US customers please be aware: US Standard AIRMAIL postage from UK to USA can now cost more than the price of the book! If speed is not of the essence,then Economy rate is recommended - at approx. anything from a 1/3rd to 1/2 of the standard US AIR quote/rate - sometimes arriving sooner than the 42 days - but not always.
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