The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-04-03
The Raddatz Submarine Boat.

at present IN winter quarters on the
shore of Lake winnebago. waiting for
the opening of navigation in Lake
Michigan. when IL will be taken to Mil
waukee. Is fusiform or cigar shaped. 65
feet in length. Its cylinder is four feet
in diameter, beginning to taper at
points 16 feet down each end. The ex-
treme height is seven and one-half feet
to the top of the pilot house. which
rises from the otherwise regularly
shaped shell at a point about one-third
the distance to the bow. The material
used i'm construction is five-sixteenths-
inch armor plate, steel riveted upon a
heavy angle-iron frame work strongly
braced internally. Its entire weight.
with it's complicated machinery, is so
tons. of which eight tons form the
weight of the shell alone. At the bow
is a heavy steel spur or ram, project
ing five feet from the boat prope and
braced within with heavy steel bars
and truss work. At the stern are the
rudder and two-bladed propeller. in no
way differing from similar appliances
in the equipment of the ordinary sur
face craft.
The boat is furnished with two in
dependent sets of machinery, one for
surface and the other for submarine
use. The surface machinery consists
of a modified hot air engine of 80
horse power. with cylinder nine and
one-half inches in diameter and Is
inches in stroke, having a maximum
piston speed of about 1000 feet a min
ute. driving the propeller at a speed of
about $50 revolutions. Even at this
comparatively high piston speed the
engine runs without excessive jar or
jerk. The primary source of power
developed by this engine depends upon
a fuel of ordinary kerosene or coal
oil.
For submarine use a set of electric
machinery and storage batteries is pro-
vided, the motor developing about 10
horse power at full speed and depend
ing for power upon the chemical energy
stored in the a~ccumulators, which. in
turn, depend upon the hot air engine
for their life. This latter depends upon
kerosene oil for the power developed by
IL. the charging of the accumulators
being accomplished when the boat Is at
the surface. The storage capacity of
the accumulators Is sufficient for "A
cruise OF about 10 hours beneath the
surface. Thus it will be seen that the
primary source OF all power depends
upon the amount of oil carried. The
advantage of coal oil for fuel lies in
the fact that II can be easily obtained
in almost any part OF the world.
The electrical submarine motors have
propelled the craft when entirely sub
merged at a speed of two and one-half
miles an hour for "a period of five hours.
curing Wnlcn no communicated WIN
the surface was found necessary. The
hot-air engine for surface use has pro-
PEELED the boat at a speed Of IA miles
an hour during a period of IA hours. al
though the average rate OF surface
speed is about eight miles an hour,
which the craft can maintain Indefinite
ly. II is to be understood in this con-
nection that the surface speed il capa-
BILE of increase to any practical limit by
the expenditure of additional power;
likewise the speed below the surface Is
limited only by similar conditions. al
though the very fact OF the medium in
which the boat operates imposes a prob
able limit of 10 miles an hour on SUBJ
marine navigation for successful in
shore work. In other words. when there
IS LANCER OF running aground or en-
countering other obstacles, the speed Of
the craft depends upon the means af-
forded and the ability of the operator
to see through the water ahead of him
and avoid any dangerous obstacles
which may lie in his path.
The three most important principles
involved in the construction and opera
ton of the boat are kept secret and are
known only TO inventor q n
the few men who have been interested
in his experiments. These have to do
with the manufacture and publication
Of the air supply. the devices invented
for sinking n raising the craft and
the mechanism by which under all con-
ditions IL Is kept upon an absolutely
level keel. Ii has already been stated
that. as yet. no recourse has been made
to patents for protection. hence the
jealous care with which all information
regarding these important principles is
guarded.
The most important Of these princl-
pies is that affecting the air supply. The
craft is supplied with reservoirs and APP
planes which produce a mechanically
and chemically prepared atmosphere
sufficient TO permit its submersion with
two men on board for a period of 2s or
80 hours. The air Is kept pure and
wholesome n is manufactured in suf-
ficient quantity and quality to supply a
crew OF four persons during eight and
one-half hours at a time without COM
municStion with the surface. IL is pre-
sumed that the oxygen is renewed by
chemical action and the carbonlc acid
gas absorbed by caustic poatsh. caustlc
soda and lime. Persons who have ex-
perienced a submarine trip in the boat
say the only difference they detected
between the manufactured atmosphere