18 WONDERS OF THE DEEP 



an enlarged Chinese lantern. It has a length of 

 from fifty to sixty feet, and is three feet in 

 diameter. It sways and bends easily with the tide 

 or with the movements of the vessel above, and 

 its concentric iron rings stretch apart, or flatten 

 together, in the manner of a concertina or an 

 accordion. Without this flexibility, of course, the 

 invention would have been of no practical value, 

 for a long, rigid, and very heavy tube, dragged 

 through the sea by the vessel to which it was 

 attached, would inevitably have been torn away 

 from the vessel by the immense leverage of the 

 opposing mass of water. 



Before explaining any further the construction 

 and operation of this deep-sea tube, it must be 

 mentioned that Captain Williamson had no thought 

 whatever, when he made his invention, of its 

 being ever utilised for the purpose of obtaining 

 submarine motion pictures. His sole object was to 

 provide a means of descending into the sea to 

 obtain sponges, pearls, coral, sunken treasure, and 

 anything else that might be of commercial value 

 or of historic interest. As a matter of fact, the 

 Captain saw so many possible applications of his 

 tube, each of which required separate patent pro- 

 tection, that several years passed by after the first 

 model had been successfully tried before any 

 practical results were obtained. 



" Like father, like son " is a phrase we are 

 accustomed to hear frequently, and in this par- 

 ticular instance heredity also endowed the sons 



