The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1913-05-20
GREAT RICHES AT
BOTTOM OF SEA

hundreds of millions of dollars
worth of gold, silver, copper and
precious stones are lying on the bot
tom of the sea, ready to the hand of
the first person who will devise means
of recovering them. Inventors in
every part of the world are building
submarine boats, diving armor,
dredging apparatus and other devices,
solely for the purpose of finding and
bringing to the surface these sunken
treasures.
The two main problems to be solv-
ed are those of protection against wa
ter pressure and of providing light in
which to work. The latter problem is
more easily solved than the former.
Modern developments in electric light
ing make it practically certain that
powerful searchlights can be devised
which will give sufficient illumination
for salvage operations at depths as
great as 400 feet. Divers who have
been down $50 feet agree that even
when the sun is shining brightly, the
ocean depths are in semi darkness.
which increases as one deseends.
The other and more serious problem
is that of pressure. The ordinary
divers equipment depends upon a
constant supply of air pumped in from
above, and a rubber suit with a metal
helmet all air-tight, or nearly so, to
keep the water from rushing in the
minute the pressure of air pumped
through the hose becomes less than
the water pressure from outside.
Theoretically, of course. the air pres
sure could be maintained at point
that would eaualize the water pres
sure, but what would become of the
divert Men working in compressed air
cassions under a pressure of 45 pounds
to the square inch are risking their
lives-and As pounds means depth of
only 104 feet of water. At 200 feet
the water pressure is little over
S6h pounds to the square inch; at $50
feet it is over los poundss at 800 feet
it is $50 pounds-and in many of the
sunken treasure ships lie at even
greater depths.
Very few divers have descended as
deep as 100 feet. One adventurous
young man went down 1876 feet in
Puget Sound, but on a second attempt
his helmet was crushed by the So
pound water pressure and he was
hauled up dead. Two English naval
officers are said to have descended 210
feet, but could remain at that depth
only few seconds.
The problem of getting down to the
deep-lying treasure ships, therefore, is
essentially one of constructing
mechanism sufficiently rigid to with
stand the terrific water pressure. 1t
must carry its own supply of oxygen,
since any sort of flexible air tube
would be crushed flat long before
depth of 400 feet is reached. and it
must be so constructed that the diver
inside it can accomplish something af-
ter he reaches the wreck, even if he
can do nothing more than attach
graphing hook to copper ingot.
The encouragement for inventors
working along these lines is found IN
the knowledge already at hand of
wrecks bearing treasure, some of
which have been sunk for hundreds
of years In 1902, a Spanish fleet
carrying quantities of gold from Santo
Domingo sunk off the island of Santa
Lucia at an unknown depth, in a hur-
TltdUt tHdl utpNt tllt hHiDS VI thiio-
topher Columbus into a nearby har
Dor for safety. From then on, for two
centuries, the record of the Spanish
conquest of America is filed with re-
ports of sunken treasure ships bearing
the riches Of Peru and Mexico back
to Spain.
Probably no diver will ever reach
the wreck of the Titanic, which lies
two miles deep in midAtlantic, where
the water pre- sure reaches the tre-
mendous force of 1914 pounds to the
square inch, but it is easily possible
that some of the inventors now work
ing on the main problems involved
will reap incalculable riches from
wrecks yet to be discovered at depths
of a thousand feet or more.-Frank
Parker Stockbridge, in the June Popu-
lar Mechanics Magazine.
---O--------