Popular Science Monthly 



Vol. 89 

 No. 6 



239 Fourth Avenue, New York City 



December, 1916 



$1.50 

 Annually 



Saving Men from Sunken Submarines 



Three means by which the crew of a 

 sunken submarine may finally escape 



Bv Llovd :\1. Kiih 



MAIN PERISCOPE 

 DISTRESS SIGNAL 

 DEPTH GAGE 

 OXYGEN TANKS 



DETACHABLE CONN-, 



ING TOWER 



TWELVE-THIRTY o'clock. Respira- 

 tion is extraordinarily difficult. I 

 mean I am breathing gasoline. 



"It is 12:40 o'clock." 



Such were the last words of the com- 

 mander of the Japanese "6", written while 

 imprisoned in the conning-tower of his 

 submarine at the bottom of the sea. This 

 was some six years ago, when he and 

 thirteen of his crew met 

 with an accident and 

 died a slow and pain- 

 ful death, simply because 

 the submarine was not 

 provided with a suitable 

 means of escape. 



Even before this time, 

 one hundred and twenty- 

 four men had been lost on 

 that account; and as 

 many have been lost since 

 then — all in times of 

 peace. But the fault was 

 nobody's; for no rescuing 

 devices had been invented 

 which could have been 

 depended upon and which 

 at the same time did not 

 take up too much of the 

 all-too-prccious space. 



And we are still experimenting on de\-ices 

 for saving men from sunken submarines. 

 A great many schemes have been in\ented, 

 a few of which at least indicate that we are 

 on the right track. These few divide them- 

 selves into three classes. 



In the first class are those devices which 

 have a buoyant detachable conning-tower. 

 This tower contains all the appliances of 

 an ordinary conning-tower; but such things 

 as the steering-rod must be made in two 



HATCH 



STORAGE BATTERY 



TOR SIGNAL. 



Detail of the conning-tower which 

 is released from the submarine 



parts which can be separated when the 

 tower is disconnected from the body of the 

 submarine. A windlass is mounted at each 

 end of the tower and upon each a cable is 

 wound. The other ends of the cables are 

 fastened to the body of the submarine. 

 Four large bolts hold the tower to the 

 submarine's body. 



Should anything go wrong, all the men 

 can climb into the tower, 

 close the hatch behind 

 them, turn on the oxygen 

 from the tanks, unscrew 

 the bolts and rise to the 

 surface. By means of the 

 handles of the windlasses, 

 the speed of the tower can 

 lie controlled as it rises. 

 When they reach the sur- 

 face, they can open the 

 windows and send out 

 signals of distress by an 

 electric flashlight. 



This plan will work 

 should the submarine sink 

 as far as three hundred 

 feet. Below this depth no 

 scheme will be of use, for 

 the water pressure is so 

 enormous that it will 

 actually force the water right through the 

 pores of the steel hull. This "sweating" — 

 as an engineer would call it — would soon 

 weaken the ri\ets and finally result in 

 crushing the submarine like an egg-shell! 



An entirely different invention has two 

 compartments within the submarine, from 

 which the crew can escape througii hatches 

 to the top of the boat. To open the hatches, 

 it is necessary to let water into the com- 

 partments through a valve, until the 



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