The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-02-06
SIMON LAKE, BRIDGEPORT
 "SUB" INVENTOR, OFFERS
 SERVICES TO THE NATION
Ready Aid in Construction of Cargo-Carrying Submarines of Greater Value than Deuschand-Makes Inter-
 esing Prophecies

sign of vessel, which successfully car ried cargo in submarines.
 As previously stated, the possi bl1i- ties of the submarine have not even yet been appreciated by the great multitude of people. I have been the Cnly designer and builder of subma- r1nes who has made a study of the submarine ill it's application to com merce, in building up commerce rather than to destroy it. It has great pos abilities in locating and recovering sunken ships and their cargo, to keep all the year around communication with northern ,ice-bound ports, for polar sea exploration, scientific ins vestigation of sea coast bottoms, the recovery of shellfish in large quanti- ties, the recovery of valuable min erals, potash producing vegetation and other submarine products, in the spongs and pearl fisheries and for various kinds of submarine work, but this development is mostly for the fu- ture. I have taken out 100 U. s. pat ents, mostly relating to submarine boats and appliances. I simply recite these facts to present my credentials and qualify, so to speak, so that due consideration may be given to some additional predictions that I am go- ing to make with a view to our coun- trys avoiding war with Germany, and explain my belief that if we do go to war that fact will be of great assist ance to Germany in enabling her to make reprisals upon England by do- ing to England as England is doing to her, by depriving her of the rights or the ocean highway and her ability to purchase from neutral nations the necessary foodstuffs to prevent star vation of her own women and chill dren and the old and the young, non combatants, who are in many local ities the greatest sufferers.
 The day the Lusitapia was sunk I was asked by the New York Tribune to wire my opinion as to what we should do. I replied that I hoped our authorities would instruct all Ameri- cans to keep off the belligerents' ves- sells or American vessels carrying contraband, and that all American vessels engaged in carrying passen- gers should be inspected before sail ing by representatives of both bel ligerents and certified to that they did not carrying contraband and thus be assured safe passage. This was not done because of reasons which have
 not been clear to me, as it was the logical thing to do. In an article in International Marine Engineering, published shortly afterward, I ex- plAined that the submarine had cer- tain limitations. The moment she ap- peared above the surface she was vul- nerable to gunfire, and if merchant ships were permitted to carry guns the only chance the submarine com mander had to prevent the contra band on the vessel reaching the en- emy was to stop her by the only means available, the torpedo, and, while not justifying the action / of sinking passenger ships even if they are carrying contraband, put it up to my readert as patriotic citizens of America and ask them what they would do if they were. sailors sworn to give their lives in the defence of their country and they were on a sub marine and saw through their peril scope vessel which they knew was carrying large quantity of potential destructive energy, on it's way to des- troy the lives of their own brother and sister citizens of their own coun- try and would at the same time give aid to sustenance' to their country's enemy? If you were one of those sailors and had only a few moments in your lifetime to act in to stop that cargo-what would you do?
 In a recent discussion on subma- rines before the Society of Naval Ar chitects and Marine Engineers [ said:-
 I do not believe there will be an- other maritime war after this one. I think the submarine will prove that no country can longer claim to be mis- tress of the sea, that the sea is a high way that every nation shall have the privilege to send their ships over and with every other nation.
 'The submarine is peculiar in the fact that it is able to prevent the car- rying on of commerce, if necessary, but it is useless for invading purposes, as the moment any portion is exposed on the surface it becomes vulnerable It Is peacemaking weapon for that reason. You can build guns to meet guns, aeroplanes to meet aeroplanes. and you can destroy life and property with various other instruments, and this has always been done from the time when human beings made their weapons of stones and pounded each other to death, but up to the present time the submarine is the first weapon that has ever been invented that has the peculiar capacity, in the prosecu- tion of maritime wars to defend coast lines or to attack vessels on the high seas, but at the same time cannot be used to invade a country, because the moment a submarine shows her con- ming tower above the surface she is vulnerable, but as long as the subma- rine remains below the surface she is invisible, and when we get noiseless machinery, which is the next step, you can neither hear them nor see them, and they have the ability to discharge a torpedo or to plant mine which will destroy any fabric which can be made to float upon the surface of the water. I think our own experiments in our own navy department, if they were made public, would prove thav assertion. You might armor a ship or make her with many different decks and of cellular construction, as many engineers have tried to do, and yet the explosion of a thousand pounds or more of trinitro-totuol, or some sim liar explosive, would blow the fabric up into the air. It is absolutely inn possible, in my judgment, to build any fabric that will float on the sur- face that cannot be destroyed by means available to the submarine.