GioVanni Luppis (1813 - 1875)
Giovanni Luppis was born in the city of Rijeka in 1813. Giovanni Luppis was a local engineer who invented the self-propelled torpedo. Luppis had retired from the Austrian Navy and moved to Trieste to in the early 1860s. Luppis contracted with an english engineer Whitehead, to further develop Luppis invention. Luppis torpedo was a small surface craft, containing an explosive charge, which was then propelled by a clockwork motor. Whitehead thought Luppis invention engineer problems were too difficult, so they ended up ending their partnership.