Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1892-08-25
Vacuum in Water.

Representatives of new company
recently formed for the raising of
sunken vessels visited San Francisco a
few weeks ago and are endeavoring to
secure contract to raise the lost
steamship San Pedro, which foundered
several months ago off the coast OF
British Columbia. 1t is only little
over q hundred years since the time
when, if these gentlemen had made a
proposition to raise a sunken ship with
the forces and appliances which they
propose to use, they would have been
prosecuted for witchcraft.
John, Joseph and James Grant, OF
Tacoma, Wash, are the men who con-
troll the unknown force, and their ap-
paratus for experiments is almost ludic-
rously simple. They are entirely con-
tident that. given the contract, they
can raise the lost San Pedro i'll very
short time and with the expenditure OF
"A very little money. They say they
have studied and experimental for six
wears and have at last perfected some
thing entirely outside the methods en-
ployed in raising sunken ships by
wreckers.
For the past two weeks the Grant
brothers have been giving practical ex-
hibitions at Tacoma of the work of
their apparatus. They did not attract
unusual attention until the process was
investigated by persons of undoubted
ability, who pronounced the expert
ments successful beyond measure, and
who at the same time frankly avowed
their inability to discover the means by
which the brothers accomplish their
wonderful results. Since then the ex-
periments have caused a great deal OF
comment along the Puget Sound, and
now maritime circles in San Francisco
are becoming animated with discus
sion of them.
John Grant says that six years ago
he was watching the obtruding portions
of a sunken steamer, upon which seve-
raj unsuccessful attempts had been
made to raise. Suddenly he saw it rise
to the surface and float some distance
with the tide and sink again. He felt
sure that the phenomenon must have
been due to some great natural force:
and this force he set about to discover
He is certain he has discovered it, and
has succeeded in bringing many other
people to his way of thinking.
The first experiments were carried
on by means of n small model boat OF
tin. This weighed thirty pounds. 1t
was loaded to its full capacity, pune
tured full of holes, and sunk in many
feet of water. A small rubber hose
had been inserted prior to sinking, and
through this Grant sent his lifting force.
The tin boat at once rose to the sur
face. Then arrangements were made
for work on q somewhat larger scale.
The experiments are now conducted
by means of a rudely constructed boat
with hull four feet in the clear from
its fiat bottom to the top of its deck.
The boat is twenty feet in length and
five feet in width, and is constructed
throughout of common fir boards. 1t
is pointed at either end, and the cracks
between the boards forming its sides
and decks, are open enough to admit q
free flow of water Only the bottom is
constructed with any degree ofstrength.
In each of its sides, half way between
the bottom and the deck, has been cut
a hole two feet square, as the brothers
explain, to represent "hole stove in
the ships bottom by rock"
When the Grant brothers get ready
to exhibit the work of their device,
they repair to log raft or float an
chored near the sunken vessel, with
small and curiously shaped machine,
which they will allow no one to examine,
giving as reason that q patent has not yet
been secured upon it. This machine is not
over eight inches square and ten inches long.
A long piece of ordinary garden hose is taken
with them, and diver takes down one end
of the hose and inserts it in the hold Of the
vessel The other end is attached to the ma
chine Then the operator OF the machine is
concealed beneath blankets and in five min
utes the sunkcn vessel rises TO the surface,
whore it floats with its deck raised an inch
above the water, and is towcd here and there
as far as the length Of the hose will permit
The Grants claim that by expellins the
water from tho hold of vessel by their pro-
cess which is but fluid of a gaseous Sub
stance, the vessel must rise by its own buoy
ancy. But two chemicals are used in the
manufacture of the fluid but these have not
been made public They claim that by their
chemicals they can create a vacuum IN the
water, and that this is the vital principle of
their ability to raise a vessel.