Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-10-14
UNDER WATER.
Experiment With the New Torpcdo-Boa
NautiIus-A Successful Dive.
.fIaye vot, made vour willp',

NautiIas--A Successful Dive.
"Have you made your WILLIS
ITS splendid place down in there
10 die of asphyxia.'
These, says the New York Herald,
were some OF the nerve-tickling COM
ments hurled yesterday after reporter
who CHANGED to be at Fort Hamilton.
in the Narrows, and was about to I'M
dertake weird trip 10 the bottom of
the bay on board of Lieut.. Zalinski's
iron tipped submarine torpedo boat, the
Nautilus. The people on the dock could
afford to be ftcetious; they were not GO
ing down into the depths. The reporter
was, and his answering laugh therefore
sounded perhaps a little forced and
raspy, but it was well intended.
Tine Nautilus has been tiled up for
n long time at the government pier at
Fort Hamilton. Experiments have been
carried on meanwhile with great activi-
ty by Lieut. Zalinski and py Mr.. Joseph
Holland. an engineer, working under
the direction of his brother, Mr.. John
Holland, of this city, who has perfected
tie engines on board. Yesterday
trial trip was intended to test the value
Of thu experiments so long going on,
and which it was judged had sufficient
ly progressed to warrant ''dive.
The reporter asked permission 10 take
this first dive. The lieutenant said.
You can go if you think you want to
chance it.
The screw" of the boat was prompt
~ on hand: it consisted of one mana
youthful, Merry fellow, selected for his
utter disregard for the dangers of the
deep, and who has gained the appella-
ton of The Dynamiter. He descend
ed into the boat, which lay in the water,
rolling easily in the long swells sent out
by the oft-passing steamers. The little
craft looked like huge cigar-a high
priced one-and pointed at both ends
The reporter next followed the crew in
TO the turret-hole, and was soon Joined
by Lieut. Ialinski and the Holland
brothers.
In few minutes the engine was
started. The throb and thump of its
working and the short puffs from the
air valves were painfully loud in the
''cabin. The air-compressor has lately
been perfected, and, though the boat is
not constructed with any other idea
than to demonstrate the theory so long
ago advanced that submarine sailing is
practicable. speed of nine miles an
hour has been obtained. 1t worked per-
fectly. The air is compressed by means
of it until the tubes on the port side
have pressure of eighty five pounds
per inch and on the opposite something
less.
'.Close the turret," said the lieutenant.
A last look outside revealed a few
soldiers and civilians on the wharf and
man lolling on his oars in rowboat
watching the monster. In obedience to
the order the cap of the turret was
swung around by an inside lever and
stout clamps inside soon fastened it
firmly down SO as to exclude the water.
Only the light which drifted in through
bull's-eye and row of small dead
lights Illuminated the cabin, and candles
were indispensable.
''Open your valvem
The crew turned stopcoek. Water
from the bay rushed into the water
chambers enveloplng the cabin and in
to the diving bell, and the boat began
to descend, with slight fitting forward,
where the eight hundred pounds in the
diving-bell helped to bear it down. On
the inside could be heard the splashing
and tapping of the water rs the waves
washed up within the walls to the tur-
ret. Then the water covered the shell
entirely and the stern settled more even
ly with the bow. The turret was soon
half under. Down went the boat, faster
and faster, and in moment more a
wave washed completely over the top.
That was queer sensation.
1t caused the breath to come quick
and short for minute. and everybody
tried to be jolly.
1--WE got a bucket of water here, y
volunteered the lieutenant; "but we
haven't any provisions.
A nice prospect. 1t is very easy to
sink boat, but to raise her is the ques-
ton. And something to eat would be
handy, in case the diver could not rise,
to last until search parties could haul it
to the surface, for the machinery might
not work right. And while these
thoughts 'bobbed up serenely'' in ones
mind the motion of the waves was no
longer felt, for the boat was entirely
submerged. The engine was not work
ing and the boat was at rest on the bot
tom of the bay. Thus was realized,
though only in degree, Jules Verne's
imaginative Twenty Thousand Leagues
Under the Sea"
1t needed only sliding panel in the
side to be opened and disclose the won
ders of the submarine depths. Fish were
perhaps noslng about the smooth sides
of the conical craft in wonder or scurry-
ing away from it in terror.
The panel scheme would be a good
one, but in lieu of it the dead lights
were handy. No fish, however, were to
be seen through them, but dead leaves
and seeweed foated about beneath the
surface, moved by the outgoing tide.
Looking up through the bulls eye In the
crown or roof the water was lighter.
The SUMS rays drifted down through it,
making it translucent, and objects, like
shadows, passing on the surface cast be-
low them deeper shadow still, which
looked queer in the weird, greenish wa
tiers. The water was twelve feet deep
Whereabouts. The Nautilus, submerged,
ordinarily draws six feet. An easy cal
culation showed the depth of the boat.
A yacht might sail over it
And now an odd feeling became no
ticeable. The compressed air liberated
into the 'cabin" rendered the atmos-
phere denser than under normal con-
ditions, and there was n ringing in the
ears of those on board. Precipitation
was forced from the skin, although the
air was not warm, and the reporters
collar began TO wilt sadly.
Let us go up"
Mr.. Holland finally suggested this
very calmly. Would ''she go up?''
Every body awaited the result Of the or.
der eagerly. The fate of the boat, may
be of its passengers. depended on it.
At signal the crew opened a valve. A
sound of rushing air from the tubes in
dictated that the diying-bell was being
rid of its weight of water. How quick
ly it was all done. Only fourteen Sec
onds and relieved of only 800 pound:
of water the boat rose until the top Of
the turret shot into the light and air
above the surface.
BY manipulating two valves the water
was driven from the water chambers to
the diving bell and thence forced out
side until eighteen inches of the roof OF
the shell were out of water and the tur-
ret could be unchanged. The dense air
in the boat rushed out OF the opening
| and the pressure of the atmosphere was
reduced. The same strange ringing in
the ears made the occupants of the boat
alive to that fact. The adventurous