A sub-marine apparatus, invented by Robert Fulton for the purpose of destroying ships. It consisted of a vessel or case, charged with combustible matter, which he proposed to transfix by a harpoon to the bottom of a ship, by diving underneath it in his "nautilus," in which he sometimes remained under water for an hour at a time. Buonaparte employed him to apply his "infernal machine " to some British ships in the Channel; but Fulton failed in his attempts to fix his torpedoes; whereupon the impatient consul of the French republic regarded him as a quack, and dismissed him, unjustly observing, "Cet Americain etait un charlatan, un escroc qui voulait seule-ment attraper de l'argent."