The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-11-06
LAKE 60. READY TO EXECUTE BIG
 U. s. CONTRACT
Submarine Builders Antici- pate Order for Monster
 Graft of New Design
PLANT IS ENLARGED;
 EXTRA FORGE IS BUSY
Local Enterprise Expects to Get Substantial Share of
 Four Million Fund

The Lake Torpedo Boat Company z of this city expects to build the larg- est and 'swiftest submarine fleet pro- tector in the world. to have 9 speed of at least 20 knots per hour, possi- sb1y more, and to be equipped under government specifications with ideas Simon Lake has long advocated both at home and abroad i Bids for the boat, which will be the fastest if not the most dangerous boat in the world, are already under-secret preparation, supervised and guarded daily and nightly by naval and secret service officers. It is further expected that comparatively get the building. of one or more smaller, slower and more deadly type, the details of which will not be divulsed.
 A special dispatch from Washing ton today admits that the government has perfected designs anad specified tons for submarine which Out-cIaSS the German U-9 class with dispIace- ment of about, 1,2OO tons, twice the size of any submarine now afloat and with a complete rapid-fire armament. She will have a cruising radius of 3,50O miles at 21 knots or more.
 Hoping to get a slice of the new appropriation for submarines amount ing to $4s s460, ,Q90 for eight or more submarines, and believing that the
 
 order, many additions have been made So the Lake plant in this city. With the largest force of men ever engaged at the plant, 360 expert mechanics of the highest type, now at work, pres parations for the accomm odation of at least 150 and probably 300 more men have already been made. Large buiIdL ings have rapidly risen from the for naer nucleus of but seven or eight, and enlarged equipment has been inc. stal1ed.-
 Officials of the plant while declin- ing to state that government work was contemplated, other than that now being forced ahead, were frank to admit today that their specified tions and bids were ready for submis- sion to the navy department for opening Dec. IS. They were san guine that the bid for the large cruising submarine may be awarded to them. When it is realized that the modern speed submarine will be over 300 feet in length as against the 125 feet of the MI type authorized in. 1912 and now under construction, the. irnmensity of the work to be done may be gauged,
 The motive power is to be the Diesel oil burning type of engine. While the MI will have a speed of but II knots on the surface and 5s beneath the new monster will have
 
 to be equipped with torpedo guns not for offensive but for defensive pur- sposes.
 5~sIn connection with the present pro Jeet of the United States governme ent it is interesting to note. that while no provision has been made in the Mz1 for mine placing and cutting, officials .refuse absolutely to deny or affirm that specifications for modern boats include this feature. They deri1e an article appearing in the current num- Der of the Scientific American, No vember 7tih, to the effect that the sub marine ca cable-cutting and mine laying chamber is irnpracticabIe, pointing, to the fact that it has not only been declared entirely practical in a, test of the protector by the United, States government January 21, 1904 but that it has been in use since and that it is probably now. in use on German sub marines. into the construction of which Simon Lake was brought in an advisory capacity some years ago by the German government
 While it Is asserted that the Ger mans later took the Knowledge ac- quired and utilized it in secret, the prob ability is that besides one boat, the G-1, owned by the United States government, no other governments be-
 Continued on Page 12)