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Revision as of 00:23, 14 July 2005 by Joy (talk | contribs) (the basics, long overdue)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Ivan Blaž Lupis Vukić (1813/1814?-1875) was a Croatian naval engineer who had invented the first self-propelled torpedo.
Lupis was born in Nakovana on Pelješac. He finished a gymnasium in Rijeka and naval academy in Venice. He served in the Austro-Hungarian Navy and rose in ranks up to the captain of frigate.
Lupis liked to work on technical innovations. He envisioned a device for destroying ships that would be unmanned and controlled from the land, while the explosive charges would detonate at the moment of impact. After numerous experiments, his design marked "6 m" finally performed well enough. He nicknamed it "saviour of the coast".
In 1860 when he was already retired from the Navy, he demonstrated the "6 m" design to the emperor Franz Joseph, and it was a success. The Rijeka mayor Ivan Ciotta introduced him to the British machine engineer Robert Whitehead with whom he signed a contract in 1864 to develop the torpedo further. While Whitehead significantly altered the original design, he always credited Lupis with the invention.
On December 21, 1866, Whitehead's and Lupis' torpedo, now named Minenschiff, was officially demonstrated in front of the Austro-Hungarian state commission for evaluation. On March 6, 1867, the government contracted the inventors for a test production. Whitehead then moved to Rijeka where he opened the first torpedo factory in 1873.
Lupis died in Torrigga, Lago di Como.
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