engineering

Patrick Cunningham (inventor)

Patrick Cunningham (inventor) is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Patrick Cunningham (inventor) rather than just read about it. In short: Patrick Cunningham (4 May 1844 – 23 May 1921), known locally as "Wild Cunningham", was an Irish inventor known for creating a torpedo which he fired down a New Bedford high street around the time of the 1896 United States presidential election. Biography Cunningham immigrated to New Bedford, Massachusetts from Dundalk, Ireland at the age of nine.

Key takeaways

Patrick Cunningham (inventor) belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Patrick Cunningham (inventor) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Patrick Cunningham (inventor) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Patrick Cunningham (4 May 1844 – 23 May 1921), known locally as "Wild Cunningham", was an Irish inventor known for creating a torpedo which he fired down a New Bedford high street around the time of the 1896 United States presidential election.

Biography Cunningham immigrated to New Bedford, Massachusetts from Dundalk, Ireland at the age of nine. He trained with his father to become a cobbler, but joined the Union Navy during the American Civil War, where he became interested in engineering and explosives. He deserted the Navy in 1865 and returned to New Bedford, where he established a shoemaking business. His charge of desertion was removed from his record in 1892. Cunningham's cobbling business was very successful, and he became one of New Bedford's most wealthy residents.

Inventions Cunningham, along with fellow cobbler Bernard Cogan, created the Iron Cunningham & Cogan whaling gun, patented in 1877. In 1892 Cunningham built a 17-foot-long torpedo named The Flying Devil, capable of carrying 125 pounds of explosive; ownership of the explosive went to the company of which he was president. The torpedo did not have propellers or screws as was typical for torpedoes, but instead had spirals around its body, in order to make it spin similar to that of a bullet fired from a rifle. It was tested at the U.S. Naval Torpedo Station in July 1893, and found to be unsuitable for use due to its short range and poor trajectory. On October 31, 1896, towards the end of the presidential election, Cunningham fired the torpedo down New Bedford's high street during a rally for the Republican candidate, who he did not support. The torpedo travelled haphazardly down the street and crashed into a shop, which collapsed before the explosive detonated, causing massive structural damage to the surrounding buildings. Multiple people were injured in the blast, though no-one was killed. Cunningham was arrested and charged with maliciously destroying a building. Cunningham went on to build more torpedoes, and in 1898 tested two of them by firing them from a schooner he had purchased. The first fired correctly, but the second exploded inside the ship and caused it to immediately sink; no one was hurt.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Patrick Cunningham (inventor)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Patrick Cunningham (inventor) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Patrick Cunningham (inventor) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Patrick Cunningham (inventor) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Patrick Cunningham (inventor)

In research: Patrick Cunningham (inventor) appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Patrick Cunningham (inventor) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Patrick Cunningham (inventor) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1844 births, 1921 deaths, 19th-century American scientists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Patrick Cunningham (inventor) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Patrick Cunningham (inventor)” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Patrick Cunningham (inventor) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Patrick Cunningham (inventor) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Patrick Cunningham (inventor) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Patrick Cunningham (inventor) in simple terms?

Why does Patrick Cunningham (inventor) matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Patrick Cunningham (inventor)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Patrick Cunningham (inventor).