Show T F nn ja E 41 V 1 o 0 ra 1 I 0 A 5 65 Z f an NO fw 4 R W 71 r 4 Z 7 BY 0 eminent an authority as admiral sir percy scott of the british navy ay declared the other day that the doom 1 of the dreadnought dread naught bad bee been sounded by the development of submarines he asserted unequivocally cally that even the su perd read noughts were archaic and that experiments had bad proved conclusively that no fighting ship was safe from the atteck of the submarine day or night why then spend millions for armor clad titans he asked the pronouncement Is the more impressive because admiral scott has probably done more than any other living naval man to make the battleship the offensive fighting machine it Is today by a system of director tiring firing lie he improved the capability of making hits quite per cent and showed how a whole battery of monster rifles could be manipulated manipulate das aa a unit and the tremendous salvo brought to bear upon a 1 1 distant target with amazing 10 1 precision in a word he he made the dreadnought dread naught a wonderfully formidable instrument of 10 attack and yet today in the face of that unparalleled record he says 1 I see no n 0 use ii for battleships there is in this country an authority of a kindred way of thinking simon lake who has done a great deal toward making the submarine what ii is in substance simon lake anticipated admiral sir percy scott by many years in predicting the passing of the heavy ships of the battle line he was asked the other day for or his opinion ot of the british admirals sweeping views 1 I still believe as I 1 always have that the submarine will drive the heavy armored battleship from the seas he replied and that it will be the means employed by all countries with a seaboard to prevent invasion from the sea abe the partisan of 0 the battleship points with reasonable pride to the spectacular performances of his giant turret guns and he tells you of the many inches of hardened steel that the points of hla his armor piercing projectiles can perforate truly these doings are little short of marvelous but the advocate of 0 the jun gun is a prejudiced expert withal for or he will not believe the torpedo to be b a formidable rival why simply because generally he takes little interest in this order of 0 weapon but the torpedo Is coming into its own it Is an n instrument of 0 precision and stupendous destructive tive might where it could not travel more than 1800 yards with any chance of hitting the target a few years back it can now cover a distance of yards and anc make that run at an average of nearly 30 knots in some particulars it Is even more accurate than the gun it travels tar far enough below the surface to be unaffected by the state of the sea with its warhead charge of several hundred pounds of tigh high explosive attacking a ship where she Is least prepared for or assault the detonation of that substance will cause a tar far greater wound than it Is possible to produce with a number of the biggest projectiles yes I 1 think sir percy scott is right and his admission means meana much more because it comes from an expert who has heretofore favored the gun and the dread dreadnought naught what do I 1 think of the submarines of the future now how big do I 1 think they will be well I 1 have done some prophesying in the past and have been frankly pooh by the un believers BO 60 you will understand my present reluctance to predict just how large submarines will eventually bo be built there are mechanical problems that must be overcome first the development of the submarine has not been as rapid as I 1 anticipated and this has been due to the difficulty of securing satisfactory engines the gasoline engine has been somewhat discredited as a motor tor for underwater boats because of the explosive character of its fuel we have had bad a number of distressing accidents due to the unexpected ignition of the fumes of gasoline yes the heavy oil engine promises to meet the needs but there has been a good deal of difficulty in cecur ing a reliable heavy oil reversible internal combustion engine thanks to the genius of dr rudolf diesel the way to success has been blazed nd as the heavy oil engine evolves the size and he speed of submariner will increase proportion atly As A a matter of tact fact we have already in mind WA n w 5 1 T OAR RIM I 1 ma edw f 1 I fa M submarines ot of 2600 2500 tons with the speed ot of a hattle battleship tle ship and it may be possible to build them ot of a speed equal to that ot of the fast cruisers but the handicap in n properly them has caused us to hesitate in putting propositions forward tor for their construction tte moment a reliable engine Is provided that will furnish a speed equal to that of the surface vessel of whatever type such surface vessel may be that moment surface vessels of that order will become obsolete tor for purposes of war their only use usa will be to train seamen and to carry the flag in times of peace how did I 1 begin my work in submarine navigation well the story Is not a long one of course you will expect me to tell you that jules vernes twenty thousand leagues under the sea was my inspiration and you shant be disappointed from my boyhood days that scientific romance gripped me irresistibly and I 1 was not more than nineteen when I 1 began experimenting in a crude way it was then 1885 and I 1 was living at toms river luver N J my aly preliminary investigation was in an overturned rowboat under which I 1 crawled to see how long I 1 could survive in the air confined close up to the inner bottom of that craft I 1 stayed there so long that a passing fisherman thought me drowned and righted the boat expecting to tow it ashore and to report my loss ini in 1893 as you possibly recall the navy department part ment asked for bids tor for a submarine boat I 1 submitted the design of one intended to travel on the surface in between the bottom and the surface or on the waterbed water bed a sort of underwater automobile so to speak I 1 had bad no financial backer and the government exacted that the successful bidder should put up a bond as a guarantee of contract fulfillment needless to remark I 1 did not get any recognition of a substantial sort but I 1 did obtain favorable comment from some of the official critics that at least gave ae e encouragement shortly afterward I 1 moved to blantic highlands and there thanks to the financial assistance of an aunt I 1 built the submarine which I 1 jokingly named argonaut jr that was in 1891 the argonaut jr was a cof box built of yellow pine jimb timber er in two layers coated with coal tar and lined with felt to make it water tight it was 14 feet long 1 4 feet wide and had a depth of 6 5 feet it was mounted upon wooden wheels the vessel was intended to navigate only on the bottom and was driven by hand power a crank shaft ending outside with sprocket wheels was geared by a chain belt to the two rear drivers inside the bow part of the boat was partitioned oft off by an airtight air tight bulkhead which made the foremost compartment a veritable diving bell with a watertight water tight door in the floor that could bo be opened for air storage the boat carried a soda water tank and a plumbers hand band pump did duty as an air compressor when the confined air reached a suitable pressure the bottom door could be dropped without fear of the water coming in when the argonaut jr was waa submerged the craft was finished on christmas day ot of 7 WY 0 A ai WM xa Z VW 7 VI J X Q N 1894 and then launched but she was not in the water more than a quarter ot of an he hour ur when a sudden storm swept her ashore and damaged damage d one of the vili wheels eels when the spring ot of 1895 came I 1 was face to face with something of a problem the argonaut jr was at the bottom of 0 14 feet ol of water and partly burled buried in soft mud my task was to her and to make her re ready ady tor for further experiments and for demonstrations looking to the interesting of very much needed capital now regular diving suits are an expensive matter and my funds were so extremely low that I 1 had run around well nigh barefooted during the winter in order that every penny available could be used in connection with my embryo suo sub marine marina when milder weather came 1 had ready a diving dress ol of my 0 own wn devising for a helmet I 1 utilized a framework of light iron ro rods its covered with painted canvas A P and made it fit snugly over my shoulders and to strap under my arms for a face plate I 1 used the glass deadlight from the air port ot of an abandoned abandon ed sloop and to help me to submerge I 1 tied sash weights to my legs common garden hose wound with wire served to carry my air supply from the surface in this fashion I 1 reached the argonaut jr closed her up and put in pipes to pump her out in my anxiety to succeed I 1 tolled toiled under water tor for several hours and in consequence spent the better martof a week in bed afterward att erward in that brief time I 1 lost 40 pounds in weight but I 1 dian didn mind that because the boat was afloat again the argonaut jr was not designed to submerge deeper than 20 feet and my main object in building her was to show how a craft of that nature could be made to travel around on the bottom and by means 0 of the diving compartment make it possible to recover things lying upon the waterbed water bed to make a long story short my performances were so successful that I 1 obtained money and we organized a company in november of 1895 but we did not have funds enough to build the big boat I 1 had planned and accordingly we had to curtail our ambition and confine our efforts to a smaller craft tor for the purpose of demonstration and as an induce mentho ment to additional capital fortunately I 1 won the confidence of the late william T malster ot of baltimore then president of the columbian iron works work sand and afterward mayor of the town the argonaut was a cigar shaped structure ot of steel 36 feet long and 9 teet feet ot of beam and was fitted with an 80 h p gasoline engine a dynamo an air compressor a searchlight water ballast pumps the apparatus necessary for or successful submarine navigation she had accommodations inside her for a crew of five and during 1898 a cruise of more than 2000 miles was made in the chesapeake bay and on the atlantic coast traveling both on the surface and submerged and over all kinds of bottom that boat designed for commercial purposes was the pioneer of a larger military underwater craft which we built la in bridgeport some years later As tar far back as 1901 1 I offered our navy department a boat that could carry guns in addition to torpedoes I 1 was generally laughed at as I 1 was for my bottom traveling wheels As you know most of the big british submarines now carry guns and other nations are profiting by those examples the big boats built by me in russia tor for the czars azars navy were designed to have this very feature in view of the actual advances and knowing the increasing destructive might of the torpedo I 1 find no difficulty in subscribing to admiral sir percy scotts prediction yes of course the idea Is ot of revolutionary portent but with the gun to batter her above water and the torpedo to do even greater damage below what chance of surviving has haa the accepted order ot of dread the proctor was the first underwater cratt craft to provide comfortable quarters tor for her crew and to be equipped with cooking facilities in order that they might live aboard of her even so the ruling spirit of our naval board of inspection in 1903 pooh this provision declaring that a mother ship would always be necessary and that the men would live aboard the larger craft low ilow I tar far that mistaken authority erred can be gathered from the performance of a slater sister boat after that little vessel became part of the czars azars fleet she made a run from kronstadt to libau in october ot of 1905 the official report ot of the commander of the vessel best tells the story this trip confirms once more the good seagoing qualities ot of boats of this particular type an a several times we were out in cold weather and exposed to high winds and heavy seas yet notwithstanding these conditions the submersible stood the weather every time quite easily at one time tor for 24 hours by reason of the violence of the wind and the nature of the sea it was not possible to pass food from the convoying conveying vessel during that period the deck was swept by heavy seas and the tha crew were able to take the air only on top of the conning tower but notwithstanding this when I 1 proposed to them the next day that they might go over to the convoy if they liked they aga again inked asked permission to remain on the submersible yes the underwater craft are coming into their own |