Civil War Sub May Have Used Battery

Researchers believe that the Confederate submarine Hunley may have been the world’s first vessel to use battery-powered weapons. Several items, including a rectangular copper plate with holes drilled in it and coils of wire, suggest the crew might have had a battery-powered torpedo when it sunk the Housatonic during the Civil War. Scientists also found trace amounts of zinc.

The copper and zinc plate was discovered in the captain’s compartment – commander George Dixon was in charge of the torpedo – and found close by a coil of wire and a second strand of wire that may have been used as a trigger. At the time the Hunley was launched, both sides in the Civil War experimented with electronics.

Scientists had thought the Hunley’s torpedo was triggered by a rope lanyard and have speculated that friction or something else then detonated the 90lb charge of gunpowder. “If the torpedo could also have been electrically detonated, this would be right in line with the Hunley to have fail-safe measures in place for all her critical functions,” says Sen. Glenn McConnell, chairman of the Hunley Commission.