News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-08-19
THE IRON-TIPPED DIVER.
TRIAL PLUNGE OF THE NEW TORPE-
Do BOAT NAUTILUS.
Half an Hour on the Bottom-SinIxing and
Rising at Will,
tFrom the New York Hcrald.f

1loNO yOu maui your WlllE'
sits splendid place to die down
there of asphYxia.
These were some of the nerve tickling
comments hurled yesterday after a
Herald reporter who CHANGED to be at
Fort Hamilton, in the Narrows, and was
about to undertake weird trip to the
bottom of the bay on board of Lieut..
Zalinski's iron-tipped submarine torpe-
do boat, the Nautilus. The people on
the dock could afford to be facetious
they were not going down into the
depths. The reporter was, and his
answering laugh therefore sounded a
little forced and raspy, but it was we'll
intended.
The Nautilus had been cited up" for
long time at the government pier at
Fort Hamilton. Experiments have been
carried on meanwhile with great activ-
ity' by Lieutenant Zalinski and by Mr..
Joseph Holland, an engineer, working
under the direction of his brother, Mr..
John Holland, of this city, who has
perfected the engines on board. Yes
terday's trial trip was intended to test
the value of the experiments so long
going on, and which it was judged had
sufficiently progressed to warrant a
dive"
The reporter asked permission to
take this first dive. The Lieutenant
said:
''You can go if you think you want
to chance it."
The Screw" of the boat was promptly
on hand. 1t consisted OF one sc~Asan
youthful, nervy fellow, selected for his
utter disregard for the dangers of the
deep, and who has gained the appella-
ton of 'The Dynamiter. He descended
into the boat, which lay in the water,
rolling easily on the long swells sent
out by the ott-passing steamers. The
little craft looked like huge cigar-a
high-priced one-and pointed at both
ends. The reporter next followed the
crew into the turret hole and was soon
Joined by Lieutenant Zalinski and the
Holland brothers.
In a 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. This 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
practicaH lie, speed of nine miles has
been attained. 1t worked perfectly.
The air is compressed by means of it
until the tubes on the port side have a
pressure of eighty-five pounds per inch
and on the opposite something less.
Close the turret,n said the Lieuten-
ant.
A last look outside revealed a few
soldiers and civilians on the wharf and a
man lolling on his oars in boat
watching the monster In obedience to
the order the cap to the turret was
swung around by an inside lever and
stout clamps inside soon fastened it firm
ly down SO as to exclude the water.
Only the light which drifted in through
a bull's-eye and row of small dead
lights il.umined the cabin, and candles
were indispensable.
''OPen your valvev
The crew turned stopcock. Water
from the bay rushed into the water
chambers enveloping the cabin and into
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 FLASHING
and tapping of the water as the waves
washed up within the walls of the
turret. Then the water covered the
she'll entirely and the stern settled more
evenly with the bow. The turret was
soon half under. Down went the boat
faster and faster, and in a moment more
wave washed completely over its top.
That was queer sensation.
1t caused the breath to come quick
and short for minute, and everybody
tried to be jolly.
give got a bucket of water here,
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 ase the diver could not rise,
to last until search parties could haul it
to the surface, for her 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
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 nosing about the smooth
sides of the conical craft in wonder or
scurrying away from it in terror.
The panel scheme would be 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 seaweed fioated about beneath the
s rface, moved by the outgoing tide.
Looking up through the bull S eye in the
crown or roof, the water was lighter.
The suns rays drifted down through it,
making it transparent, and OBJ. ,ects, like
shadows, passing on the surface, cast
below them deeper shadow still, which
looked queer in the weird greenish
waters. 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 old feeling became no
ticeable. The compressed air liberated
into the "cabin" re dered the amos
phere denser than under normal condi-
hons and there was a 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"
Everybody awaited the result of the or
der eagor.y. The fac o. the boat may
be of its passengers, depended upon it.
At signal the crew opened valve A
sound of rushing air from the tubes in
dictated that the diving bell was be-
ing rid of its wei hit of water. How
quickly 1t was all done. Only fourteen
seconds and relieved of only 500 pounds
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 unclamped. 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 1act Inc adventurous
quintet were soon welcomed by their
friends on the dock. The vessel had
been half an hour on the bottom.
THAT beats a Turkish bath all hol-
low, " said one of them looking down at