The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1914-05-29
SUBMARINE CRAFT
They Surpass All Warships In
Concentrated Deadly Power.
A DIVE UNDER THE SURFACE.

Agony Of Roaring Noises That Be-
wilder the Novice as the Vessel Goes
Down Into the Depths Of the Sea.
In waters where the United States
maintains a naval station you may
happen to see tall staff cutting
through the water as though borne by
some unseen hand beneath the sur
face. On the top of the staff is a
slight bent hood pointed in the direc-
ton of motion. This is the eye of a
submarine.
From the lens in the front of the
hood a picture of the whole seascape
Is carried down by succession Of
thrown on prismatic lens at the bot.
tom. Here the navigator of the sub
marine watches moving picture Of
what is going on above the surface Of
the water and guides his boat accord
ingly.
We said boat advisedly, because it Is
really a vessel for the transportation
OF human beings at sea. 1t is, more
over. more than floating craft, swim
ming on the surface like a swan. 1t
il also diver, darting down into the
depths like a fish.
Let yourself be shut up in it and
dive with it and it seems more like a
tightly corked bottle. Your first sen
sation as the boat starts downward is
that you have foolishly allowed your
self to be shut up in a death trap
from which there is no escape. Your
heart sinks faster than the boat
And then something happens to make
you forget everything but that this
craft is helish contrivance for de-
stroying your hearing. AS the subma-
rine dips under the surface and all
outlet for sound is cut Off by the seal.
ing waters the rush of the sea around
the steel walls becomes the rattle OF
spring hail on a tin roof. You remem-
Der that old and painful swimming
hole experiment when you held your
head under water and let a playmate
strike two stones together. But here
the assault on your eardrums Is as
though a million stones were striking
together. A pebble falling through the
Changing like a Chinese temple full Of
japgllng gongs. You must shout to
be heard.
Through the roar from the vibrations
Of the steel shell come the insistent
cracking hum Of electric motors. the
rafting fire Of gasoline engines, the
whlr Of machinery and the barking
cough Of exhausts. Your craft seems
to be nothing but an elliptical mass OF
concentrated noise sinking through the
sea. You fear that 1t will blow up
from its own vibrations.
When you have in measure con.
trolled your protesting ears you look
around and see wonderful array of
engines, machinery. deadly tOrpedOes
dashed together in pairs and the steel
tubes from which they are projected
with compressed air all slowed away
In the least possible space.
The double walls surrounding you
are themselves huge ballast tanks.
which can be filed with water through
valves opening into the sea outside or
pressed air from within. AS these
tanks are filled the hull of the sub
marine sinks until only the periscope.
the elevated eye OF the vessel, shows
above the water. When the water is
forced out of them the boat becomes
light and rises to the surface until its
coming tower. superstructure and the
upper part of the bull are exposed.
Then the craft is navigated like any
other boat.
When the vessel is submerged the
navigator ut the lower end of the
periscope has far more intricate task
than the steering of an ordinary boat
The periscOpe. of course. brings him
limited view of the sea about Then
be must steer in two planes instead
Of one. His craft turns not only to
the right or left, but also up or down
To enable the vessel to stay under
the water longer time than usual
the submarine carries a reserve supply
OF air This emergency supply is com.
pressed in steel flask under the enor-
nous pressure Of 1000 pounds to the
square inch. Should the flask burst
the explosion would wreck the boat
Perhaps better idea Of the tremen.
dous concentration implied by this
pressure may be gained from the
statement that II this storage cylinder
were punctured with hole no big
ger than a needle and II the tiny Jet
OF escaping air were to strike a man
II would pierce him through and
through like bullet and even drive a
hole through an inch thick board be-
hind him.
For ordinary purposes the air sup
ply used under water is carried In or.
binary cylinders at much smaller pres
sures. Unusual precautions have to
be taken to prevent the contaminated
OF the air supply by gases from the
storage batteries and from the gasoline
motors.
Concentration epitomizes the subma-