What's Wrong with the Submarine? 



A submarine boat is not perfect. Two sets of motors 

 are needed — one to drive it on the surface and *he 

 other under water. Why not use one set only? 



By Frank Shuman 



(A submarine boat must be driven under water by storage batteries for reasons given in this 

 article. As a result, even the larger submarines are literally packed with machinery. Some of 

 this could be dispensed with if one set of engines could be used for surface and under-water 

 propulsion. Moreover, the dangers attending the use of storage batteries would be avoided. 

 Mr. Frank Shuman, a distinguished mechanical engineer, famous for his wool-degreasing ma- 

 chinery, his sun-power plant, his corrugated glass, his method of making concrete piles, has in- 

 vented a very ingenious method of obtaining this desired end by utilizing liquid oxygen. — Editor.) 



IT seems very wonderful that, after 

 centuries of effort, men have succeeded 

 in building boats which can dive be- 

 neath the surface of the water and come 

 up again almost as readily as dolphins. 

 Indeed, it is so wonderful that those who 

 have only a general conception of the con- 

 struction and operation of the submarine 

 are apt to believe that the millenium in 

 naval architecture has come. The truth is 

 that for all its deadliness, the submarine is 

 a very crude piece of machinery. The 

 submarine serves the very useful purpose of 



taking the conceit out of mechanical en- 

 gineers; it reveals to them how very much 

 they have to learn about the generation 

 of energy. 



Every submarine in the world is driven 

 on the surface by what are known as in- 

 ternal combustion engines — engines which, 

 in a general way, are similar to those by 

 means of which automobiles are propelled. 

 Such an engine is curiously human. It 

 breathes air, just as you and I must breathe 

 if we would live. A certain amount of air 

 must be mixed with the liquid fuel of the 



Conning tower 



Electric steer 



Ventilators 



Hydroplane Officers quarters 



Escape hatches Torpedoes 



Ancho 



How Liquefied Oxygen Is Turned into Gas under High Pressure to Generate Power 



Power generated from liquefied oxygen is utilized to 

 operate first an expansion engine and then the regular 

 explosion engine of the submarine. Liquid oxygen is 

 intensely cold — so cold that it boils when exposed to 

 the much hotter atmosphere. On shipboard it is kept 

 in a container which prevents it from boiling away 

 as much as possible. To convert it into a gas under 

 pressure, it is pumped from the container through 

 three successive coils before it reaches the expansion 

 engine. In the first coil the liquefied oxygen is turned 



into gaseous oxygen under high pressure; the necessary 

 heat is supplied by ordinary sea water running around 

 the coil. In other words, heat is absorbed from the 

 sea water, which heat furnishes the main power to 

 drive the expansion engine. The gaseous oxygen is 

 next superheated by passing through the second coil, 

 the superheating being produced by using the cooling 

 water which has been used to jacket the explosion 

 engine of the submarine, around the coil. The now 

 gaseous oxygen is still further superheated as it passes 



