Henrique Antonio Baptista, Brazilian military and naval engineer (Montevideo 05 May 1824 – Niterói 09 January 1899)
Advocated the adoption of a length of 50 calibers for cannons intended to give a tense trajectory to their projectiles (universally adopted)
Proposed improvements to Whitworth guns such as introduction of load guide and its suppression (1887) and breech block
Perfected torpedo attack fuses and mortar-launched alumina projectiles
Enunciated practical rules for finding the deviation of sea needles caused by iron
FEATURED
Invented a number of war artifacts such as Baptista system of naval trailer for gun repair (1857), as percussion fuzes (1874; patented in 1877) and Whitworth cannon breech device
A metallic cartridge for center percussion carbine independently
Friction primers
Time and concussion fuzes (Baptista model)
Metal percussion fuzes
BIBLIOGRAPHY
O Capitão de Mar e Guerra Henrique Antonio Baptista – estudo biographico. Almirante Henrique Boiteux (1924)
Revista Maritima Brasileira 115(1-9):94, 1995
His son, Henrique Rodolpho Baptista, obstetrician and gynaecologist (Santa Catarina State 1853 – Rio de Janeiro 19 March 1941)
Invented a spherical curette for exploartion of uterine mucosa in Curetta spherica (1894)
Described a maneuver to make possible the fetus version after decapitation (1916)