Who invented the submarine?
4551386#3
Although there were various plans for submersibles or submarines during the Middle Ages, the Englishman William Bourne designed one of the first prototype submarines in 1578. This was to be a completely enclosed boat that could be submerged and rowed beneath the surface. Comprising a completely enclosed wooden vessel sheathed in waterproofed leather, it was to be submerged by using hand operated wooden screw thread adjustable plungers pressing against flexible leather bags located at the sides in order to increase or decrease the volume of water to adjust the buoyancy of the craft. The sketch (left) suggests that the depth adjustment was by means of a crankset projecting above the surface. There is no obvious accommodation for crew. The first submersible to be actually built in modern times was constructed in 1605 by Magnus Pegelius. Its fate was to become buried in mud. In 1596 the Scottish mathematician and theologian John Napier wrote in his "Secret Inventions" the following: "These inventions besides devises of sayling under water with divers, other devises and strategems for harming of the enemyes by the Grace of God and worke of expert Craftsmen I hope to perform."
It's unclear whether or not Napier ever carried out his plans. Henry Briggs, who was professor of mathematics at Gresham College, London, and later at Oxford, was a friend of Napier, whom he visited in 1615 and 1616, and was also an acquaintance of Cornelius Van Drebbel, a Dutchman in the service of James I of England, who designed and built the first successful submarine in 1620. Hence, it is not impossible that it was because of the interest taken by Napier in the submarine that Briggs came in touch with Drebbel.
History of submarines
28825#76
The success of the submarine is inextricably linked to the development of the torpedo, invented by Robert Whitehead in 1866. His invention is essentially the same now as it was 140 years ago. Only with self-propelled torpedoes could the submarine make the leap from novelty to a weapon of war. Until the perfection of the guided torpedo, multiple "straight-running" torpedoes were required to attack a target. With at most 20 to 25 torpedoes stored on board, the number of attacks was limited. To increase combat endurance most World War I submarines functioned as submersible gunboats, using their deck guns against unarmed targets, and diving to escape and engage enemy warships. The importance of guns encouraged the development of the unsuccessful Submarine Cruiser such as the French and the Royal Navy's and M-class submarines. With the arrival of Anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft, guns became more for defense than attack. A more practical method of increasing combat endurance was the external torpedo tube, loaded only in port.
The ability of submarines to approach enemy harbours covertly led to their use as minelayers. Minelaying submarines of World War I and World War II were specially built for that purpose. Modern submarine-laid mines, such as the British Mark 5 Stonefish and Mark 6 Sea Urchin, can be deployed from a submarine's torpedo tubes.
Submarine
41682148#1
Among his inventions is a submarine boat with a cylindrical hull of copper having conical ends and with a screw propeller and rudder operated by electric power generated on shore or on ship board, by means of which the torpedo is propelled, guided and exploded. Among Sims’ earlier inventions were various devices in electromagnets and the construction of an electric motor, weighing 45 pounds for light work, with a battery of twenty half gallon Bensen cells that propelled an open boat sixteen feet long with six persons on it, at the rate of four miles an hour. His invention of the submarine torpedo boat was followed by the devising of a boat with a speed of 22 miles an hour to carry a 500 pound charge of dynamite.
Winfield Scott Sims
644066#17
It would be wrong to claim the German submarine fleet of the World wars was directly descended from Wilhelm Bauer’s prototypes, but he nevertheless influenced them. The modern submarine began its history with the inventions of Simon Lake and John Philip Holland. However, the submarine pioneers of the 19th century - de Villeroi, Monturiol, Hunley and others - were all aware of Bauer’s efforts and drew inspiration and even ideas from his submarine.
Wilhelm Bauer
418189#25
Despite "Turtle"'s shortcomings, Bushnell's invention marked an important milestone in submarine technology. The American inventor Robert Fulton conceived of his submarine "Nautilus" in the first years of the nineteenth century and took it to Europe when the United States proved largely uninterested in the design. During the American Civil War, the Confederate States of America, faced with a similar situation to that of the colonies during the War of Independence, developed an operational submarine CSS "H.L. Hunley", whose destruction of the USS "Housatonic" in Charleston Harbor in February 1864 was the first successful submarine attack in history. By the early-twentieth century, the world's navies were beginning to adopt submarines in larger numbers. Like Bushnell's design, these boats mimicked the natural forms of marine animals in their hull designs. As one contemporary historian of submarines observed in 1901, the evolution of modern submarine evolved from the whale, which he deemed a "submarine made by nature out of a mammal.
Turtle (submersible)
3612798#6
An early book, "The Flying Submarine" (published in 1912) may indicate Westerman's genre. This boys' adventure novel was about a mysterious man from a South American country. He was an inventor, who had discovered a new kind of lighter-than-air gas that he called “helia”, which was much lighter than helium or hydrogen. He used helia in many inventions, including back-packs that could help a man float in the air or fly upwards, and in the remarkable titular submarine that could, when enough helia was used, fly! Eventually he used his flying submarine to win a war between his South American country and its belligerent neighbour.
Percy F. Westerman
59621607#0
"Seeteufel (Sea Devil)" was a hand-powered submarine designed by Wilhelm Bauer in 1856. It was made of iron, and was long, wide and deep. It could hold 15 people. After his last submarine, "Brandtaucher" had sunk, Bauer included a diver's chamber in the design. Through this chamber, which worked like an airlock, divers could leave and enter the submerged vessel. He had tried to obtain support for his invention in several countries, like the Austria-Hungary, the British Empire or France. Finally, in 1855, Bauer made a contract with Russia. He built his submarine at the Leutemberg Works, and it was completed on 1 November. In May 1856 it was taken to Kronstadt and testing began. The submarine made 133 successful diving runs, including a dive on 6 September 1856, when musicians played the national anthem of Russia during the coronation of Alexander II. But during the 134th dive, the submarine got stuck in the sand of the seafloor and was later retrieved by a salvage crew.
Seeteufel (Russia)
4551386#19
During the 1870s and 1880s, the basic contours of the modern submarine began to emerge, through the inventions of the English inventor and curate, George Garrett, and his industrialist financier Thorsten Nordenfelt, and the Irish inventor John Philip Holland.
In 1878, Garrett built a long hand-cranked submarine of about 4.5 tons, which he named the "Resurgam". This was followed by the second (and more famous) "Resurgam" of 1879, built by Cochran & Co. at Birkenhead, England. The construction was of iron plates fastened to iron frames, with the central section of the vessel clad with wood secured by iron straps. As built, it was long by in diameter, weighed , and had a crew of 3. "Resurgam" was powered by a closed cycle steam engine, which provided enough steam to turn the single propeller for up to 4 hours. It was designed to have positive buoyancy, and diving was controlled by a pair of hydroplanes amidships. At the time it cost £1,538.
History of submarines
22572386#5
Dolphin invented the 'Welman', a one-man submarine that was prototyped at Station IX. The miniature submarine had no periscope so was hard to navigate as the submariner had to look through specially armoured glass segments in the small 'conning tower'. The Welman was designed to attach 560-pound explosive charge to its target by magnetic clips, but this could not be made to work reliably. It was decided to try the Welman submarine in an attack on the Floating Dock in Bergen harbour so on 20 November 1943 MTB635 and MTB625 left Lunna Voe, Shetland, carrying Welmans W45 (Lt. C. Johnsen, Royal Norwegian Navy), W46 (Lt B. Pedersen, Norwegian Army), W47 (Lt. B. Marris, RNVR) and W48 (Lt. J. Holmes, RN). The craft were launched at the entrance to the fjord. Pedersen's W46 became entangled in an anti-submarine net and had to surface, where she was captured by a German patrol craft. Pedersen survived the war in a prison camp and the other three eventually had to be scuttled. Their operators made their way north with the help of Norwegian resistance members and were picked up in February 1944 by MTB653. The failure made the Royal Navy concentrate on X craft and XE craft, although further Welman trials took place in Australia.
John Dolphin
4551386#17
The first submarine that did not rely on human power for propulsion was the French Navy submarine "Plongeur", launched in 1863, and equipped with a reciprocating engine using compressed air from 23 tanks at 180 psi. In practice, the submarine was virtually unmanageable underwater, with very poor speed and maneouverability.
The first air independent and combustion powered submarine was the Spanish "Ictineo II", designed by Narcís Monturiol. Originally launched in 1864 as a human-powered vessel, propelled by 16 men, it was converted to peroxide propulsion and steam in 1867. The craft was designed for a crew of two, could dive to , and demonstrated dives of two hours. On the surface, it ran on a steam engine, but underwater such an engine would quickly consume the submarine's oxygen. To solve this problem, Monturiol invented an air-independent propulsion system. As the air-independent power system drove the screw, the chemical process driving it also released oxygen into the hull for the crew and an auxiliary steam engine. Apart from being mechanically powered, Monturiol's pioneering double hulled vessels also solved pressure, buoyancy, stability, diving and ascending problems that had bedeviled earlier designs.
History of submarines