From the Commercial Advertiser, Feb. 19, 1810, reprinting an article from the Freeman's Journal:

The Committee [of the House of Representatives] upon Mr. Fulton's Torpedo Project, reported that it would be proper for the house to adjourn from Friday to Monday, and appropriate the Hall of the House on Saturday to the purpose of affording Mr. Fulton a situation and opportunity to deliver a Lecture upon the practicability and utility of the Torpedo System, and to exhibit the said Torpedoes....

It would become the Legislature of the U. States to pay attention to the established importn of language, and not sanction deviations from it without important reasons. The term "torpedo" has been descriptive of the electrical eel, and it is not consistent with the dignity of the house to change its meaning, merely because a man of ingenuity or science has chosen to apply it to another subject.

Now look how the language -- and of course the dignity of the House -- has been degraded as a result.