Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 186 Alcohol-Burning Torpedo
It was because of fear of death. After all, the Huitian torpedo had no escape device, so piloting it was basically a death sentence. Wang Gensheng had personally tested the escape parachute that he had installed on the torpedo.

Basically, they were able to successfully pull people out of the cockpit of the high-speed torpedo every time, unlike the Kaiten torpedo which crashed into the enemy warship and perished together with the torpedo.

Of course, in order to improve their survivability after escaping the torpedo, Wang Gensheng believed that the soldiers piloting the torpedo should wear diving snorkels so that they would not have to surface to be attacked by other ships on the surface after escaping the torpedo.

Furthermore, when carrying out torpedo attacks, it is best to have two people piloting two torpedoes as a group. The second person is naturally used to rescue the first pilot. After all, even if a person is swimming underwater, their speed is not much faster, and they can be easily caught up and captured by warships. However, having another person piloting a submarine to provide support makes a difference.

However, just as Wang Gensheng successfully converted the unmanned torpedo into a manned cruise torpedo and was preparing to continue his efforts to convert all twenty or so torpedoes on the warship into manned cruise torpedoes, the chief engineer told Wang Gensheng that there was no fuel left, because Wang Gensheng had already used up all the fuel used by the other torpedoes while testing the modified torpedoes!

Upon hearing this, Wang Gensheng remained calm and immediately inquired of the chief engineer:

"Is this torpedo fueled by gasoline, diesel, or kerosene? I'll have Du Yiman send a telegram to the General Headquarters to ask for some reinforcements!"

Upon hearing this, the chief engineer immediately shook his head and said:

"It's not gasoline, nor diesel, nor kerosene. The fuel used in this American-made torpedo is alcohol. Its torpedo piston engine actually burns alcohol!"

Wang Gensheng was stunned when he heard the chief engineer's words. Then he remembered that when the chief engineer was adding fuel to the torpedo, there seemed to be a smell of alcohol.

This reminded Wang Gensheng of a joke he had seen online before his time travel, which said that the torpedo cocktails made by American soldiers during World War II used torpedo fuel.

The reason for this was that the United States had once issued a very strict prohibition order in the early 20th century, destroying all kinds of alcoholic beverages and making alcohol as hard to find as drugs. This was already very difficult for ordinary people, but it was even more unbearable for American soldiers who were fighting hard on the battlefield during World War II.

Against this backdrop, in an attempt to circumvent Prohibition, American naval sailors sought an unrestricted alternative, and began experimenting with using torpedo fuel to make cocktails. Because torpedo fuel typically contained a high concentration of alcohol, it became a viable alternative for cocktail making.

Of course, the creation of the torpedo cocktail was not without its challenges. At the time, the US Navy was equipped with the MK14 and MK10 torpedoes, both of which shared a common characteristic: they required ethanol brewed from grains as fuel.

Ethanol is just alcohol, and apart from its high alcohol content, there's nothing wrong with it. So, wouldn't it be easy to dilute it with water, juice, or soda and turn it into fine wine?

So the American submariners didn't stand on ceremony. They pried open the torpedo, took out the ethanol, and mixed it with fruit juice to make a delicious cocktail. That's how the cocktail came to be: Torpedo Juice. And so began their happy days of drinking to their hearts' content underwater.

While enjoying their drinks, the American submariners even boasted to their comrades in the surface fleet during their rest days about how they managed to drink delicious cocktails underwater.

Upon hearing this, the officers and men of the US Navy's surface fleet naturally couldn't sit still and followed suit, soon drinking torpedo-flavored juice. However, because the surface fleet's officers and men didn't handle the evidence properly, they were caught red-handed by the military police, and the matter reached the ears of the US Navy's high command. The US Navy's high command immediately ordered severe punishment for the officers and men who drank, but orders are not always obeyed in the field, and besides, the high-ranking officers on the fleet ships tend to turn a blind eye to such things.

The US naval high command thought for a moment and decided to add something to the ethanol. However, the US naval high command was not exactly a saint either. They started mixing dye into the ethanol in certain proportions. After the soldiers drank it, they vomited and had diarrhea, and some even got poisoned from drinking too much.

Later, because the dye was not very effective, the US Navy simply switched to toxic methanol. This made things even worse for the US submariners. Whether they were unaware of the danger or knew about it, they couldn't resist and countless people were poisoned. Some unlucky ones even died from drinking it.

At first, the soldiers simply used torpedo fuel instead of alcohol to make cocktails that were extremely strong and difficult to drink.

After numerous trials and improvements, they finally found a better-tasting mixing method. This method is said to have been passed down from a veteran who successfully created a drink that combined the rich aroma of alcohol with the sweetness of fruit using a special ratio of torpedo fuel and fruit juice. With the birth of the torpedo cocktail, it quickly spread throughout the military.

This alcoholic beverage not only satisfied the soldiers' taste preferences but also circumvented the restrictions of the Prohibition Act. However, the torpedo cocktail was not solely for military use.

During Prohibition, some merchants also recognized its commercial value and began selling torpedo cocktails to the public. This drink thus became a unique phenomenon of the Prohibition era, leaving a deep impression on the American society of that time.

However, there is no prohibition on alcohol here, so there is no need to steal alcohol from torpedoes to drink. Moreover, using alcohol as fuel for torpedoes is a good thing for Wang Gensheng, because in this era, alcohol is much cheaper than fuel oil.

After all, it was still an agricultural country at that time, and the country didn't produce any oil fields, so the wine brewed from grain was naturally much cheaper than gasoline.

As for why the United States uses alcohol as fuel for its torpedoes, it is mainly to simplify the torpedo manufacturing process. It should be noted that the engine of a torpedo is also called a steam torpedo.

This is mainly because water needs to be added when the torpedo engine is running. In this way, the water absorbs heat and generates a large amount of steam, which can generate stronger thrust, while also reducing the temperature of the torpedo engine.

However, water is incompatible with gasoline or kerosene, so an additional tank is needed to hold the water, and a special water injection system must be designed inside the engine. This would undoubtedly increase the difficulty and cost of manufacturing torpedo engines.

So the American torpedo designers had a brilliant idea: since kerosene and gasoline are insoluble in water, wouldn't using a variety of water-soluble fuels solve the problem of needing to add an extra water injection system to the engine?

Therefore, using water-soluble alcohol instead of fuels like gasoline and kerosene became the specialized fuel for steam torpedoes.

(End of this chapter)