The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-06-14

New Torpedo Boat
From the New York Sun.
Since September 1882, a sign has been
displayed on the door Of an upper room
Thomas GannOn's brass foundry, Jersey
City thread: Positively no Admittance
This Means You" Within the room
workmen were building working model
of submarine torpedo boat invented by
John Philip Holland: On account of its
small size not more than two men could
work omit at once, and they dragged along
until last week, when it was completed.
Yesterday the door was opened and a
sun reporter watched half dozen men
launching the new vessel out of the-front
window and down a pair of skids to a
wagon waiting in the street below. The
new craft is what is commonly but un-
truthfully called cigar-shaped. 1t is the
exact shape of the double-cone tishline
bobs, 1t is l6 feet 9inches long and 29inch,
es in diameter The shell cont inns six strakes
of boiler iron, the upper strakes being
three-sixteenths of an inch thick and the
bottom strakcs one-quarter of an inch
1t is stiffened with six rings of T iron.
Under both the bow and stern are keelS
four and a half feet long, the one under
the bow being made of lead and weighing
218 pounds. The rudderis hung to the
stern keel. On each side of the rudder is
horizontal rudder, or fin, that works on
the principle of balance rudder The
two work together. When the forward
ends of these rudders are raised while the
vessel goes through the water, they nat
urally elevate the stern of the vessel and
| deprcss its nose, causing it to dive under
the water. When they are held in thai
position and the empty compartments
made for the purpose, are filed with
water, the vessel will remain below the
surface. For the present the new boat
will be propelled by wheel IS inches in
diameter, with "a inches pitch. The
wheel will I've turned by treadle until
Mr. Holland completes a new chemical
engine.
On the top OF the vessel, one-third of
the way forward, is hinged circular
dome of castiron. A ring of rubber
makes an air-tight joint when the dome
is secured There are nine skylights in
the DOME each about one by two inches
A small iron trough runs forward from
the dome over the middle third of the
vessels length. 1t contains an iron pipe
and is part of the apparatus for hand
ing the torpedo. The displacement OF
the vessel, loaded, is $500 pounds.
The craft contains number of new
ideas not utilized in the one mace at thu
Delamater iron works in 1881, just
what these Improvements are MIR. HOLLAND
declines to say, because they have moi
yet been patented, but they include
methods for handling torpedos and sup
plying fresh air to those within. Will
the treadle power Mr.. Holland says he car
reach a speed Of from three to four knot
an hour. When the new engine is il
place he thinks the speed for every shOr
! distances will be as high as ten knots.
This is Mr. Hollands third working
model. The first was completed in 1878
Speaking of it and his work on the other!
he said; THE first one was successful
although the engines did not work.
| demonstrated that submarine vessc
could be handled We worked it by tax
| ing steam through a hose from steam
launch. The next one | got from tn
Delamater works, April 10, 1881. tool
it to the docks of Mr. Vanderbilt Morris
at Fort Hamilton, where | kept it ter
months. He witnessed my experiment
with it, / have travelled all over tn
lower bay beneath the water Weran he
into mud banks at full speep She al
ways rebounded. We were fifty fee
below the surface at times. have bee
down under water as long as two and
half hours. That is much longer thai
would be necessary in warfare. Half a
hour or fifteen minutes would enable on
to travel the necessary distance to fix
torpedo to vessels keel. We demonstrate
that this could be done by actual expert
ment. The papers had good laugh owe
what they thought was failure. ] wa
an Irishman and kept my secrets to my
self. That was conclusive evidence c
Fenianism. 1t was at once decided tina
was building a boat to encourage SCI
want girls to contribute to the skirmishln
J fund. The fact is, | do not belong t
I any society, and do not want to do so.
. have gone into this on business principles
When my experiments are complete an
the value of certain ideas is determined
t | will be looking for capitalists TO form
stock company to build these vessels"
Have yon ever had any accident
under water?"
My engineer, George NJ Richard
did. He made q dive under tug near Il
dock as he was putting out into the rive
. He left the manhole open, and of cours
she filed. The men on the tug pickle
him up, as he floated out He was III
! conscious for item minutes When the
= vessels are properly secured before star
:. ing there is no danger, because ms
= must attend to businers to keep thel
e down. If his hand slips or he forge
= himself for minute the boat will rise
the surface"
i The new boat was taken to Pamrap
y where the old one is. The experiment
will be made at Pat McGeihans sbipyal