, 1900-12-31
HIS BOATS SECRET
INVENTOR OF SUBMARINE CRAFT
MAKES KNOWN CAUSE
OF SUCCESS.
Water Tanks Must be Full, or Ballast
will Shift and Then cause Disas.
ter-Any Nation Which has His
Boats will Whip Any Other Craft.

J.. P. Holland, the inventor Of sub
marine torpedo boats, recently held the
attention Of a large audience to the end
of his lecture. before the faculty and
classes Of Manhattan college. New
York. 1t vas the first Of q series to be
given on naval architecture before the
students. DR.. Ferrer. president Of the
Alumni society, introduced the inven-
tor, who received an ovation. His lee
ture was graphic and profusely Illus
trated with s~tereopticon views.
Mr.. Holland disclosed last night the
great secret of his success. It is to
have ~theballast tanks always full OF
water, lever partially filed. otherwise
the water ballast shifts. changes the
center of gravity. upsets the BOAT and
causes disaster. This one little fact
is the Holland key to sailing and div
ing about like a fish under water. On
it hangs the value of his patents.
Mr.. Holland began his lecture with
a brief history of submarine boats and
their many failures. When the first
inventors thought they had an idea,
they proceeded to build a boat around
it. and generally failed. They found
unforeseen difficulties, and their most
plausible theories proved impractical.
BILE. But it was often a serious disad-
vantage for an inventor to have plen-
ty of money to exploit his crude ideas
before they have been properly tested.
Il was compelled to wait twenty
years said Mr.. Holland, before /
could get money even after I was sure
my plan were completed. And for
tunately | put in my time by inviting
criticism. 1t was my salvation. The
new ideas that really made my boat
a success were suggested by men to-
tally ignorant of naval archi-
lecture. They asked questions that not
only surprised me, but I never had
thought of them. and l could not an.
swer them. So set to work to meet
all such problems and remedy every
new difficulty, and thus in time l came
to evolve a practical submarine boat.
For twenty years l kept on making
questions. until I launched my first
boat at Patterson, N. j., in 1877. 1t
was a IA 1-2 loot boat-21 1-2 by 3 l.2
feet, in sections The boat proved
the correctness of most of my princi.
pies. My only errors were a belief
that / could see to steer under water
and my method Of dying. l found that
diving purpose faj hon-head first
was the proper way, instead Of sink.
ing the boat horizontally.
my next boat. nicknamed the Fe.
MAN Ram, was a success. l went down
forty-seven feet deep off Castle Point,
Hoboken-sank to within three feet OF
the bottom. Then I knew my boat was
built on the right principle. To my
surprise and delight l found it was
light and easy to handle in motion,
and that the problem of submarine nav
igation was practically solved. The
invention Of the electrical storage bat
terry some a later made submarine
navigation seriously practical.
THE French deserve the honor Of
first succeeding in submarine neviga-
ton, leaving out of account what has
been done by my boats. Progress made
by the French has been praiseworthy,
but their best boats up to date have
not accomplished what the 'Fenian
Ram did nineteen years ago, and then
without the assistance Vi storage bat
%teries. Unfortunately. they have been
hampered with the idea that success
is not possible GU side ii France"
In closing Mr.. Holland said: II ex-
pected more at the beginning Of my
experiments than all others. Now l
will say that am more surprised than
any n at the achievements of my
boat. The greatest drawback to for
eign submarine boat success is the be-
lief that they have already achieved
it-that their imperfect boats are per.
feet. The nation that is supplied with
these boats, properly manned. can de-
feat the greatest Of navies belonging
to any other power."-New York Her
aid.