The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1890-05-23
SUBMARINE NAVIGATION.
All the Boats Hitherto Constructed Hav
Proven Too Cumherso,,,. e..

All the Boats Hitherto Constructed Hav>
Proven Too Cumbersome for Use.
At the famous siege of Syracuse fa1a
B. c. trained divers were employed on
work under water, but their work was
unsatisfactory, since they could stav
under water but few moments at a
time. From that time until about two
hundred years ago there was little or no
progress made in submarine work. but
within the last two centuries efforts
have been in progress for EMPLOYING
submarine boats; for the most part. how
ever, these efforts have been failures.
very few even as much as partially sue
ceeding.
To do full service, the submarine boat
must be constructed so as to give fresh
air $3.50 cubic inches per minute for each
mani, so as to- furnish the means for
freeing the air from poisonous impuri.
ties arising from exhaling carbonic acid
gas; also the means of giving and gov
erning motion in the submarine boat,
and room for the workmen while under
water.
One of the first boats constructed was
by an Englishman named Day, in 1774.
The boat was failure, however. and
Day lost his life during an experimental
descent in Plymouth Sound, in a vessel
of about fifty tons burden. He intended
to make it rise after a submersion of
considerable duration, but failed.
The next year one Bushnell, of Con-
necticut, contrived a submarine boat To
be used in warfare. 1t was of some
what globular shape, and was propelled
by kind of Archimedean screw. This
boat was, in measure, a success, but it
was never put to any practical use, and
soon dropped out of notice. Robert Full
ton, while in Paris, in 1896, invented
box which, when filled with combusti-
bles, might be propelled under water,
and made to explode beneath the bottom
of ship, so as to blow it up, but the at
tempt was an entire failure. Some
years afterward, however, he really
managed to blow up an old ships hull
in this country. He also constructed a
submarine boat for the purpose of blow
ing up ships, capable of containing sew
eral persons, but when tried on several
of the French rivers, it was only par
tial success, and very unsatisfactory.
Some of the suggestions about subma-
rine ships or boats are to the effect that
boat ought to carry store-vesse,s con-
tanning oxygen to replenish the air, the
carbonic acid being absorbed either by
cream Of lime or strong solution of
ammonia. In 1859 much attention was
attracted to boat designer in Chicago.
According to the patent, the vessel was
egg-shaped in transverse section, and
diminished nearly to a point at each
end. The rudder was at the end of
hollow shaft, which also contained the
axis Of the screw propeller. The boat
was completely closed in on all sides,
except for certain pipe-openings. There
were two iron tanks in the interior; one
had air forced into it by an air pump;
the second contained water, and was
furnished with a pipe and stop-cock
communicating with the first. The en-
gineer of the boat by pumping water
into or out of the second, through the
action of the air in the first could raise
or lower the boat as he willed. The
boat was furnished with steam-engine
to provide propelling power. The en-
barrassments to it's use, however, were
too many and difficult to establish it's
permanent success.
Some years after boat, called the In
telligent Whale, was exhibited at
Brooklyn, N. Y. 1t was of an extended
egg-shape and provided with many orig
inal and needful contrivances. 1t was
thought, when the boat was first exhib-
tied, that the problem of submarine
navigation was solved. but after few
trials it was found to be too cumber-
some for convenient se-N. Y. Ledg-