The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1920-10-03

q at least one compromising reaction.
The tremendous destruction has turned
mems thoughts to salvaging what.
ever is possible to save Of lives and NUM-
lions and equipment Men who would have
been given up for lost few years ago are
now dragged back from the very Jaws OF
death. Soddsn, riddled uniforms, ragged
shoes, rusted guns have been reclaimed
and repaired and put into service again,
actually as good as new.
- And finally, with a warborn impetus,
ship-salvaging methods are receiving re-
pewed attention. An American inventor
has come to the fore with Q method which
bids fair to raise from the graves count
less hulks for years considered safe In
Dayy Jones's locker. A. B. saiiger. of New
York, is about to test an invention which,
if successful, will reclaim from the bed of
the ocean the golden waste heaped there.
Merely as an inkling Of the immense
treasure that awaits the successful sal.
wager. it is estimated that more than eight
billions. of dollars worth of ships and cargo
were sunk during the four years OF the
world war alone. The $4,000 ,00O, 900 is
sum, greater than the national debt in
Cured during the Civil War, greater than
the total output of gold in this country, and
greater than the wealth wrested from the
diamond mines of South America through
out the entire period OF their exploitation.
Add to this the treasure that has gone to
the bottom in the centuries and there is
a total too stupendous for the mind of man
to grasp.
Many efforts have been made to rob the
sea of its hoard. Salvaging is an accom-
plisbed fact-to a degree. Small ships or
those sunk in shallow water can be re-
claimed Cargoes can be saved, sometimes.
But the bulk of shipping is lost forever
once it reaches bottom.
Salvage operations, under present meth
eds, fall into two classes-pontooning and
patching Pontoops of wood, metal or con-
crete are fastened to the wreck, and COM
pressed air or the force of the tides is used
to effect the lifting. Patching is term
used to denote the closing of all openings
in the hull, after which the water is
pumped, out Neither method is effective
in all cases. Rigid pontoons have a ten
dency to crush the vessel; lifting cables
break 1t in two. Patching is q lengthy,
uncertain process, impossible where the
vessel lies deep below the surface. Most
ships sink deep into the mud or sand OF
the bottom, and ordinarily It Is impossible
to get cables under them.
The Saliger scheme uses equipment de-
signed to lift vessel from any depth OF
mud or sand. 1t requires burrowing ma
chimes and collapsible pontoons. The bur.
rowing machines are of three types: One
resembles caterpillar tractor combined
with hydraulic sluicing; another is the
double torpedo with oppositely rotating
propellers, pictured on this page; and still
another is like nothing else so much as
mole. All of these types are electrically
controlled and operated from switch
board at the surface. They are only about
three feet square, are guided by two verti-
cal rudders and one indicator rudder-
which shows by a series Of lights on the
operators switchboard the progress and
direction Of the burrowing machines far
below him The machines will crawl
through mud or sand below the ships keel
at the rate of from three to five feet
minute.
The machines dig through mud or sand
or crevices in rock, dragging lifting cable
with them. They can be sent in any direc-
touchdown, up or around. II one should
break, buoy is attached and 1t is left
until some convenient time for removing
1t and another is sent in its place. The
mechanism is self-contained and is said to
be extremely simple though powerful.
Divers are stationed at the bottom on
the side where the burowing machines are
Id come up, and in each diving suit
az armored suit has been invented for
descending as far as 500 feet-is special
hearing device on the electric diaphragm
principle, which enables the diver to hear
readily at great depths. The burrowing
machine contains a device that causes II
10 make loud humming noise when 1t
PASSES from the mud or sand into the
water, and by this means the diver Is able
to Iooate the machine when 1t has dragged
the cable under the hull.
When sufficient cables have been passed
around the ship, collapsible pontoons are
attached. The pontoons are made Of rub
berfand canvas and are spherical 10 shape
apd are netted with two-inch MANILA rope.
They are capable Of lifting twenty-five tons
each and withstand a breaking pressure
OF seventy tons. Each Is equipped with
safety valve and attaching hook that will
ndt tear out. The pontoons are sent down
~defiated, attached to the cables at the sides
of'tbe ship. and then pumped up with com
prnssed air from the surface AS soon as
CROUCH tonnage has been displaced by the
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