WHITEHEAD, ROBERT English inventor, was born at Bolton-le-Moors, Lancashire, on Jan. 3, 1823, the son of James Whitehead, owner of a cotton-bleaching business. In 1837 he was apprenticed to a firm of engineers in Manchester, and in 1844 joined his uncle at the works of Philip Taylor and Sons, Marseilles. In 1847 he set up a business of his own in Milan, later joining the staff of the Austrian Lloyd Company at Trieste, where he was manager from 1850 to 1856. In 1856 he began to work for the Stabilimento Tecnico Fiumano, building several Austrian warships, and carrying out preliminary experi ments for the Whitehead torpedo, completed in 1866. In 1872
Whitehead bought the Stabilimento Tecnico Fiumano, converting the works entirely to the production of torpedoes and their acces sories. (See TORPEDO.) In 1876 he improved his torpedoes with the "servo-motor," and gradually increased their speed. His work was perfected in 1896 by Obry's invention, subsequently acquired and improved by Whitehead, of the gyroscope, which guaranteed precision of aim.