Science: Lake

Can mankind break the grip of the Arctic? Simon Lake, famed inventor of submarine craft, turned his attention to this question and last week propounded part of an answer.

He has created “a new type of submersible vessel designed to navigate under ice. This invention consists of a superstructure for a cargo-carrying vessel by which its navigator, upon encountering ice-covered or ice-filled waters, may submerge and run beneath the ice, then rise to the surface, breaking up the ice, and thus open a path for continued surface navigation.

“A resident of Baltimore, Simon, who is 58 years old, has long been prominent in the development of undersea navigation. In the early 90’s he competed for the contract to build the first Government submarine. A rival won the award, but in 1897 Mr. Lake launched the Argonaut, first submersible to operate successfully in the open sea. Speaking on the development of the submarine, he once said : “My first trip was in the Argonaut down Chesapeake Bay.Night was coming on and we de cided to come to the surface.

A Chesapeake ‘Bug Eye’ lay to leeward. I called to the man aboard to tell us where we were. He put for shore, got out, ran inland Meanwhile I landed, went to the store for provisions. A crowd had gathered. It seemed that the man from the boat had told a story of heard seeing a it go buoy ‘puff, going puff, against puff,’ the tide, smelled sulphur. Then the devil had come out of the smokestack ! “On these early boats, three white mice were members of every crew — to detect gas. When they keeled over it was time to come to the top.”