Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1915-05-22

gun would fall into place again before
water could enter the boat
In 1747 an Englishman named Sy-
mons, or Simons, made a wooden boat
shaped like galley, large enough to
hold two or three men. 1t was operat
ed by oars and steered by an oar, but
his method for sinking and rising was
ingenius, though 1t had been used with
little success by Borelli almost 100
years before. Along the sides Of Sy
mons boat were number Of leather
bottles When the inventor desired to
sink he allowed water to run into these
, bottles, the necks of which were OF
course outside the boat and the bodies
inside When he wished to come to
the surface he expelled the water from
the bottles by squeezing them and pre-
venting 1t from flowing back by fas
tening the necks Crude as this method
was, it is the principle which highly
developed, is used in the submarine OF
today.
Very few histories of the war of the
| American Revolution mention submar
rines, yet one of these craft was used
+, in an attack on British ships in New
York harbor
| David Bushnell, an American, made
several successful under water trips
, in copper vessel which, because OF
Its shape. he called 1.-THE Turtle A
number of old diagrams of this craft
have been preserved.
! The Turtle was propelled by oars,
! The paddle with which she was steer.
f; ed and the other three oars or paddles
were of course fitted into alright
holes. The boat was caused to sink or
rise by pumping water into or out OF
the tanks. It had coming tower just
about large enough for a mans head
The port holes were of glass. Bushnell
employed safety weight. This was a
large lump of lead which was to be un'
screwed If anything went wrong and
the vessel would not rise when the
water was pumped out or If the pumps
should not work.
She boasted a bomb, or detachable
charge of powder, which was to be
used to blow in the bottom of ves-
sell
So successful were the trials of the
Turtle that the inventor obtained per-
mission from General Parsons to blow
up Llc DIlLlou Ill6dtC Lc$6AS' VI o"AAS'
which was lying with the feet just
north of Staten Island, in New York
harbor AS Bushnell was not recog-
nized belligerent he instructed Ser
geant Ezra Lee in the operation OF his
craft and this gallant officer made the
perilous attempt.
At night he was towed by rowboats
almost to the Eagle, then sank and
managed to work the Turtle under the
frigate but it was not possible to fas-
ten the bomb to the copper bottom OF
the vessel and the tide carried him
away.
All thought that Lee had lost his life
but after hours of heart breaking work
at the oars he managed to make his
way back to the Americans. Mean
while the bomb had drifted away and
exploded where 1t did no harm except
to brighten the crews of several Brit.
ish ships half out of their wits.
And year by year found the subma-
rine developed to greater degree OF
safety and efficiency. The American
civil war found both North and South
trying the under water style of craft
ana what little success was gained,
stimulated renewed effort. The sub
marine of today can and probably will
be improved upon, but it has finally
reached point where it has become
an instrument of war that must be
reckoned with. But it Is not modern
invention.