Controlled mines

In the 1840s Samuel Colt began experimenting with underwater mines fired by electric current and in 1842, he blew up an old schooner in the Potomac River from a shore station five miles away.

In 1869 the United States Army Corps of Engineers was directed by Secretary of War William Belknap to assume responsibility for torpedoes for coastal defense.

In the United States, modern naval mine development began in 1869 at the Engineer School of Application under Major Henry Larcom Abbot at Willets Point, New York.

Lieutenant-General Sir Andrew Clarke, Inspector-General of Fortifications 1882–86, found that he did not have enough Regular Army engineers to man all the minefields being installed so he decided to utilise the part-time soldiers of the Volunteer Force.

By 1907 the War Office had decided to hand responsibility for the minefields to the Militia, but several Volunteer units were converted to Electrical Engineer Companies employing their lights for coastal artillery control and, eventually, anti-aircraft defences.