Evening star., 1947-08-09
By Prof. Auguste Piceord
(Fifth of a Series.)
(Copyright, 1947l
Lerth Amerienn N.w.nnner AIIiane,


BRUSSELS, Aug. 9.-We have re-
peatedly shown the similarity be-
tween our Bathyscaphe and a
stratosphere balloon; air being re-
placed by water and the hydrogen
filled gas bag by a float containing
gasoline. To go down, baloonist
let's little gas leak out; we in our
Bathyscaphe free little gasoline to
dive. To go up, the pilot of the
Bathyscaphe does just the same as
his aerial counterpart-he drops bal
last.
But If the aeronaut cannot drop
ballast-either because there is no
more or because the system fails
all that happens is that his trip Is
cut short and he slowly lets out gas
and comes down to earth again. Not
so with the submarine navigator If
he cannot drop ballast, he is con-
demned to stay at the bottom of the
sea for all eternity.
It would be possible to place
under the cabin a container of mer-
curry whose escape tube would pass
through the cabin, where a tap
would control its flow out through
the end of the tube into the sea.
There are two reasons against this:
The method is onerous 1--WE have to
drop between 1000 and 1000
pounds of ballast) and the tap
could get stuck or the pressure
might drive the mercury into the
cabin. Either way 1t would mean
the END of the Bathyscaphe and Of
any one in it.
Ballast Must Be Outside.
Obviously the ballast must lie
outside the cabin. Equally obvious
ly, the pilot must be able to control
its discharge. There are only two
means whereby he can maintain
this control through the hull: BY
mechanical device or by electric inn
pulse. But mechanical device
means another hole through the
hull, an da severe weakening of the
cabin since some means must be
found which will allow a rod to
move without letting any water in.
Electricity is therefore the only
answer.
We could safely pass a copper
conduit through plexiglass cone In
the hull. But there are two new
dangers, short circuit and a bad
connection. Insulation In salt
water under a pressure of 400 at
mospheres is at best a delicate
problem, and these twin dangers
cannot be guarded against with any
absolute certainty.
There Is, however. one perfectly
sure NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. AS
long as electricity passes through
coil, the steel to which it Is con-
nected Is magnetized. Any break In
the current demagnetizes. If we
can attach our ballast by magnetic
attraction, any electric failure would
simply mean that we'll get to the
surface fast; there Is no real danger
Concrete Blocks Used.
It was a relief to hit on this
method and to find that 1t would
work. One OF my worst nightmares
had been a failure In the ballast
release system.
| How is the principle spplied2 A
dozen blocks of reinforced concrete
weighing between 220 and 800
pounds each could form the ballast,
attached to the outside of the hull
by magnetism. The pilot has only
to touch a button for one Of these
weights to drop of. But this meth
cd has a drawback; you can't drop
just little ballast to, say, rise Just
a few feet.
Perhaps, we argued, the answer
would be to build sort OF cage
outside the cabin, filed with little
steel balls. When the cage is de-
magnetized, the little steel marbles
can run out through hole at the
bottom at speed Of, say, 100 pounds
a minute. To simplify things, We
could magnetic just the escape
| hole. As soon as the current Is