New-York tribune., 1919-08-02
Lakes Guests
W ak Dry Shod
On Ocean Floor
Inventor Demonstrates New
Salvage Submarine and
Party Gets Crabs and
Shells on Bottom of Sound

Std1f Correspondence
BRIDGEPORT, Conn, Aug. 1.-Simon
Lake, inventor Of the first seagoing
submarine, scored again for American
ingenuity to-day when he demonstrated
to party of friends that they might
safely stand on the floor of the ocean
without getting wet. The inventor sub
merged his latest salvaging submarine
on the 5ottom of Long Island Sound
and persons who went down fearsomely
returned laughing and dry shod and
carrying sea shells, big king crabs and
fish captured for souvenirs.
The new submarine is called Argosy
and Argonaut III, and was designed as
practical salvaging ship to be used
instead of the time honored deep sea
diver for the recovery of sunken treas
ure and to engage in general salvage
work and submarine engineering.
Work on the ship was begun in 1900,
when the inventor had constructed a
partial working model. But the inter
ference OF war contracts for sub
marines held up further experimental
ton. 1t was comparatively recent
when Mr.. Lake commenced developing
the salvage idea applied to his sub
marine patents.
Proves Practicability
The preliminary trial and demonstra-
tion given yesterday proved its prac-
ticability, Mr.. Lake said.
Two days ago, in an experimental
s. P. boat. Mary Alice, off Penfield Reef
in the Sound. The ship, in tifty-four
feet of water, had been there since last
fall. The operating chamber, or sub
marine part of the ship was let down
until it rested on the pilot house of the
sunken boat. A heavy brass starboard
running light was sawed off by the
salvage crew, hauled inside the sub
marine, and the ship leisurely raised
TO the surface.
To-day party of men and women
their ears and marvelled at the beauty
of the submarine fish and the trans
lucent green quality of the water as it
flowed by the door in the floor of the
submarine. One adventures ONE SWIM
mer dropped into the water, stood on
the bottom of the sound, took a chest
full OF air, and swan away. In mo-
ment he surprised those on the deck
of the mother ship by popping up on
the surface of the water
Pass Out Through Tube
The salvaging submarine is con-
nected to a large mother ship by a
steel tunnel or access tube. This is
large enough for a person to pass
through in STOPPING position. On en-
terlng the submarine, one must step
from the deck of the mother snip into
this tube. which is set in cleft of the
bow Of the ship, where it is cut off
square. The angle of the tube depends
on the depth to which the submarine is
plunged.
The depth sounded in the trial was
twenty to twenty-five feet. The extra
air pressure was Sc pounds per square
inch. Going down in the tube to the
submarine the visitors were let into an
air chamber which was sealed tight,
and the pressure gradually increased
to that of the bottom of the Sound at
thta depth. From this compartment they
passed into the operating end of the sub
marine, large enough for several per
sons. 1t rested on the bottom, the air
pressure keeping the water always On
an even plane with the little door,
called the aquascope.
Hundreds of salvaging projects await
the submarine, the inventor said. One
is a treasure ship sunk during the
Revolutionary War off He'll Gate. An
other job on hand is the salvaging of
S4,000,000 worth of coal from wrecks
along the Sound.