Evening star., 1948-12-08
Navy Working Hard
On True ..!' Sub That
Needs No Outside Air

PROVIDENCE, r. l., Dec. 8
NANA).-The Navy is working
hard and apparently successfully on
development of true submersible-
vessel that can operate under wa
ter for its entire time at sea, with
out access to outside air such as
with q Snorkel tube. The develop
ment of an engine which will work
without outside air is one of the
Navy's most closely held secrets.
It is learned that the Germans
had begun experiments during the
war on CLOSED cycle" engines with
just such an aim. One engine was
built by a Prof. Walter, employing
hydrogen peroxide as fuel. Infor-
nation on this engine is now at
hand, although it cannot be learned
how far beyond this our Navy engi-
neers have gone.
Toward the end of the war, the
Germans were using hydrogen
peroxide-in much higher concen-
trations than the liquid which
makes blonds of brunettes-as a
propellant in 26 different war wea-
pons and were experimenting with
it for 40 others.
Used In Walter Engine.
Most important, however, was the
FUELS use in the Walter engine,
which, fitted in type 26 U-boat,
would have driven the 80-ton craft
at the unheard-of speed of "a knots
submerged. This was when sub
marines were making top speed Of
7 knots under water The subma-
line was never used, for lack of hy-
drogen peroxide.
The hydrogen peroxide in a con-
centration of so to IS per cent (the
clsinfectant is concentrated at about
3 per cent? was given the code name
Ingolin by the Germans. In some
applications, 1t was used as a prim-
ary fuel: The disassociation of hy-
drogen peroxide into water Tor,
rather. steam) and free oxygen pro-
duced heat.
More often, the Ingolin was used
as a secondary fuel with the free
oxygen used to support combustion
of a fuel such as decalene (similar
to Diesel oiD. Or the reaction
might take place in one step by
the use of a liquid catalyst: the
Germans had mixture of liquid
catalyst and fuel which they called
"Helmann."
Hydrogen peroxide in these con-
centrations is quite unstable: it
cave the Germans much trouble.
The development program was a
constant hazard.
How 1t Works.
The Walter engine, which our
Navy engineers have reassembled
rom parts picked up after the war
works more or less like this: lingo
in is sprayed into a catalyst cham
her where it strikes permanganate
# potassium. sodium or calcium
here it breaks up into steam and
zee oxygen, the steam being about
} per cent of the volume. The
cam and oxygen move into
. pmbustion chamber.
Into the combustion chamber are
limited decalene and water. The
mperature Of the Cham is
love the combustion point, so the
rcalene burns, utilizing the oxy-
n derived from the Ingolin. The
lrking mixture, then about "a per
It steam, goes through a common
am turbine connected with the
)marine's drive shaft.
The conventional Diesel engines
a submarine gulp huge guam
les of air to support the COM
lstion in their cylinders. The
alter engine, in effect, makes its
wn oxygen as it goes along. So a
.ubmarine need not send up
.Jnorkel tube. But there is a dis
:, ,dvantage to Ingolin-aS a power
Nroducer it costs about 1000 times
more than fuel oil.
However, our success in pushing
he Germans Snorkel development
far beyond their maximum achieve
nent, in our new "Guppy" subma-
rines, suggests that already we may
we'll have overcome the disadvan-
tages Of the Walter engine.
Belgium has issued q stamp
i1onoring Allied forces who liberated