New Britain herald. [microfilm reel] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, 1917-11-09
FACTS ABOUT THE AMERICAN NAVY
Submarine Development
BY LIEUT.. T

NIL " S1lSp the EnBISn nOVenSC Win
F.; the hundred horse power Imagination
assured us a few years ago that sub
marines were only passing nuisances.
Like hoop skirts and run away horses
they would die a natural death. Why
] indeed fight blind-fold when
! Mr.. Wells had another guess COM
ing.
Rev. John wilkins, 200 years be-
fore, was more nearly right. In his
Mathematical Magick'', London 1908,
! that peaceful gentleman describes a
"Publick underwater conveyance for
remote Voyages" He AYERS that an
enemy wouldn't have the ghost of a
show against this invisible Reptile
of Mans cunning" And for peace
purposes, several colonies may these
inhabit. having children born and
bred up who could not but chuse to
be amazed with strange Conceits up
on the discovery of this Upper World.
Even keen John Holland never con-
ceived Of using a submarine for a
human incubator
OF course Bob Fulton had crack
at the U-Boat game. Aged 81 he
spent delightful winter in Paris hit
ting the high places, but compensate
Ing by trips under the Seine IN 20
TT. submarine, which he tried to sell
to Napoleon. The gentle General (see
"a Horse of a Husband" by jose
phine) pronounced the device ungal-
liant and immoral.
May 7, 1904, Fulton cashed a
sight draft and crossed to England.
Pitt, then Prime Minister, was much
taken with the young American en-
gineer But Admiral Vincent squashed
the proposition by declaring, that
gimcrack would do away with our
Navy, on which depended the pres
tige Of Great Britain! Exclama-
ton mark is mine. The great states
man was vastly right and hugely
wrong in the same breath.
In 1906 the inventor returned to
New York, save in which he was
not without honor, and tackled Con-
gress. Once more tho immortality
Of the project defeated it's military
promise. Whereupon the discoura ged
Fulton is said to have seriously con-
sidered taking up the scientific de-
cient and honorable game of tiddle-
dywinks.
The first successful submarine and
the only one that up to the present
war ever sank an adversary, was the
Confederate David, named after the
Bible story. She was built at Mobile
and brought overland to Charleston.
Her body was of bolted steel plates,
IS feet long and 6 feet in diameter.
Propulsion was by hand cranks at
tached to screw shaft. Eight men
sat in a fore and aft line like mod
ern cylinders Their remarks on
the heat and labor were the first
cylinder knockings on record.
The David earned the name OF
"Peripatetic Coffin" by sinking Ave
times in five trips and drowning 35
out Of 40 men. 1t. Paine C.S.N. her
commander through the first three
disasters, then took to bridge jumping
as safer occupation.
On Feb. IT, 1854. the Coffin made
her last attack. She sank the Fed
eral warship Housatonic with 200 lbs.
Of black powder. Later divers found
her sticking in the hole she had made,
her crew caught like Holsters in a
trap.
Holland, the American genius
was pioneer in the modern submarine.
He modelled his first craft after the
Whitehead torpedo. Later Great
Britain paid Holland large royalties
for his patents. His first attempt
rosembled the Niagara Falls man
barrel. She was 16 feet long by 2 feet
in diameter, and a one man boat
but the kind Of fool necessary to her
success was so scarce that Holland
had to try again. Altogether he built
submarines and spent about ST.
100000 before the government bought
one for $4,000.
That was in April 1900 when, after
26 years OF experimenting, came the
last and greatest advance in subma-
rine construction, VIZ, that one sub
merged must run by electricity. Gas
engines require too much air. BY
means Of storage batteries modern
U-boats can make IA knots and more
under water. This saving of oil ex-
tends surface cruising to 1000 miles
without refueling.
The illustrations F~renchman Ad-
m1ral Auhe flew into rage when he
heard that Paris had gone In for "sub-
marine mastodons with neither eyes.
speed, nor teeth to bite. ~ He took
no account Of the wad this giant
sduid could squirt, making all the
little Tommies, Poilus and Samnies
run screeching for the beach.