Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-12-22

hours. Divers would descend, slip
their chains through the eyebolts and
signal: Haul away"
Civilian Work Praised.
Inp short, 1t is true today, as it al
ways has been, the Navy has never
welcomed a suggestion from the out
side. And yet the submarine itself
and all of it's developments have 1een
due to the ingenuity and enthusiasm
of civilians such as John P. Holland,
the Irish schoolmaster, and simon
Lake.
The article I am criticizing also
tries to give valid reasons for the
failure of the Navy Department to
give approval to safety chambers or
life boats in which the crews can
escape. I approach this phaze of the
subject with some hesitancy because
happen to be the inventor OF such
device, bat Il hasten to say that L
never had a thought of deriving from
1t any financial advantage whatsoever.
1t is at the disposal of the Navy with
out a cent of compensation any time
they care to adopt it. They must,
however, give some better reasons
for condemning it than any so far
vouchsafed. -
My device is an elliptical steel raft
to be fitted into the deck of the SUBJ
marine and housed between the deck
land the hull proper of the submarine
with a hatch leading to the interior.
1t is designed to fit flush with the
deck and will thus offer no resistance
to the ships motion. 1t was planned
originally in 1910 to provide for the
shelter of about Is men which was
the usual crew of submarines then
in use.
Might Use Several Rats.
But there is no prohibition against
the use of two or more OF them to
acco. odate the crews of the larger
subAi mes of today. AS they would
only take up Is feet of deck space
longitudinally there is no reason in
the world why one could not be fitted
over each compartment of the mod
ern type of submarine. The S-4 is
231 feet long. Four of the chambers
would only take up 60 feet of deck
space.
AS a sample of the Navy way Of
reasoning, 1 quote this from the ar
ticle in question: Assuming that a
device of the lifeboat type which
would not detract from the military
value of the vessel can be devised,
there is no assurance that the open
ing through which access to this
lifeboat is obtained will not be one
of the compartments which is flooded
and which prevents the vessel from
rising to the surface" The answer
is, of course, have one connected to
each of the compartments!
The article printed in The Star has
this subtitle: practically All Sug-
gestions Have Been Tried But Found
Useless" This is a joke. No one
ever heard of the Navy trying any
thing unless 1t came from a Navy
source or had been tried in other
countries!
Signal Bombs Recalled.
Why, this very accident would
have been avoided if the Navy EEK
perts" had even obeyed orders!
When Franklin d. Roosevelt was
Secretary of the Navy he gave
orders" to install signal bombs on
every submarine designed to be dis
charged when the vessel was coming
to the surface. These bombs were
designed to emit different-colored
olLlOhC-lCuJ SICCn anu yCliOW anu
would hover over the surface for
three minutes; thus warning vessels
in the vicinity that submarine was
about to emerge.
Let some one tell us why that de-
vice has not been installed and how
Roosevelt's orders were defied.
The Germans have devised a steel
one-man submarine in which the
diver who operates it can descend
and ascend and work absolutely in
dependent of outside pressure.
The ordinary diver requires about
an hour and 80 minutes to reach a
depth of 100 feet, as he has to stop
for 20 minutes at every 80 feet to, adj
just himself to the pressure Of the
water.
This device was offered to the
United States Navy in 1924 and yet
no steps have been taken to adopt
it, although it's feasibility has been
tested.
Let some one tell us why?