804 



Popular Science Monthly 



Last year Congress made an appro- 

 priation calling for 25-knot submarines, 

 to cost not more than $1,500,000 each. 

 I saw this reported in the newspapers 

 and I immediately wired the Depart- 

 ment that it was impossible to secure 25- 

 knot boats for less than about two-and- 

 a-quarter million dollars each, and I 

 later advised that it would then probably 

 take several years to develop a suitable 

 engine. The largest submarine engine 

 of which I know is one of 1300 horse- 

 power, completed in Italy for one of the 

 large German boats just at the beginning 

 of the war. 



As it would probably require about 

 10,000 horsepower to attain twenty-five 

 knots. Congress hardly realized how 

 stupendous was the problem of produc- 

 ing at a single step a boat capable of 

 traveling nearly twice as fast as the 

 best underwater vessel of the day. No 

 wonder there were no bidders for a 

 25-knot -boat. 



While it was impossible, even with 

 unlimited money, in the present condi- 

 tion of internal combustion engineering, 

 to develop a 25-knot submarine boat 

 quickly, it is possible to get quickly a 

 large number of 50-knot submarine boats 

 of small size, w^hich for the same expendi- 

 ture would prove many times more 

 effective in warding off an attack than 

 the larger boats. I refer to what I call 

 "amphibious submarines;" that is, sub- 

 marines of about two hundred tons dis- 

 placement, which could be hauled on 

 special railway trucks from one point of 

 the country to another at a speed of 

 fifty knots per hour, with crews, stores, 

 equipment, all on board. The railway 

 tracks would be continued down under 

 the water as a submarine railway at 

 such points as the Government might 

 desire. It would be necessary only to 

 back the truck and submarine down 

 into the water until the submarine 

 floated. Her commander would only 

 need to give the bell and she would be 

 off. Such boats could probably be 

 built for three hundred thousand dollars 

 each to make ten knots on the surface 

 and about eight submerged. It would 

 be possible to get six or eight such boats 

 for the cost of one twenty-five-knot boat 

 and cover six to eight times as much 

 territory. A torpedo fired from a small, 



inexpensive boat is just as effective as one 

 fired from a large, expensive boat. The 

 small boats could make the trip from 

 New York to San Francisco in four days, 

 New York to Boston in five hours. New 

 York to New Orleans in thirty-six hours, 

 in perfect safety, while a modern large 

 submarine, under war conditions, could 

 probably not make the trip at all, except 

 as a -slow-going surface boat, liable to 

 capture or destruction. One hundred of 

 these amphibious submarines could be 

 quickly turned out by the various ship- 

 yards throughout the country, and it 

 would also be possible to get engines 

 quickly for them; the power required 

 permits of using sizes of engines that 

 have already been developed by several 

 concerns. Such a system of coast 

 protection would enable the quick mobil- 

 ization of a large number of submarines 

 at any threatened locality, for harbor or 

 coast defense purposes. Of course it 

 would be advisable to have a large 

 number of submarines for off-shore work 

 or to patrol the coast where distances 

 between ports or harbors would be too 

 great for the smaller craft. 



Many disadvantages accompany the 

 use of the storage battery. It is very 

 heavy for the horsepower energy it 

 carries. It is also bulky, so that only 

 sufficient energy may be carried to 

 propel modern submarines at about 

 eleven knots per hour for one hour, 

 about eight knots per hour for three 

 hours, or at about five knots per hour 

 for twenty hours. This means that when 

 the energy is exhausted the submarine 

 must ascend to the surface or secure 

 surface connection in order to obtain 

 air to enable her engine to be run to 

 recharge her batteries. This is likely to 

 prove her undoing, as the noise of her 

 internal cumbustion engines in charging, 

 can, with a proper receiver, be heard 

 many miles, and would direct an enemy 

 surface boat or submarine to her. There- 

 fore, before the submarine can become 

 invulnerable, she must become capable 

 of operating without sound. If it were 

 possible to produce some sort of primary 

 battery whereby energy-producing ma- 

 terial could be put into the battery like 

 coal into a furnace, it would be ideal for 

 submarine torpedo-boat use, and the 

 submarine would then become invincible. 



