Simon Lake, the submarine inventor

President
Woodrow Wilson

In 1915, the British ship Lusitania was sunk by a German submarine, bringing 1,198 lives to the bottom of the sea. Among these victims, there are 124 Americans. This catastrophe caused President Woodrow Wilson to abandon his neutral policy and the United States declared war on Germany. America's war involvement was the decisive factor for the 1914-1918 World War.

During the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, if the submarine was used by the Russians a few years earlier, it was unlikely that Tsar's Fleet had sunk deep into the sea and the Tang Tang people could hardly win the victories. Wine makes the whole world surprised and admired.

The submarine, the killer of the sea, was created by Simon Lake, based on the suggestions of the French writer Jules Verne. Simon Lake read Jules Verne's "20 Thousands Under the Sea" (Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea) at the age of 10. Lake dreamed that one day, he would make a perfect submarine than the fictional Nautilus.

1. Think about submarines.

Simon Lake (1867 - 1945)

Simon Lake (1867 - 1945), born in a talented mechanical family. This family has never bought any machinery that they can make. Simon's grandfather made a seeding machine and Simon's father also invented a window curtain (flute), while other family members were creative and improved on typewriters. , about the phone, about color printing tools.

Because of reading Jules Verne's fictional story, Simon Lake often fantasized about a submarine, opening the idea to his father. Simon was advised by his father to study first. Due to his hobby, Simon was a mechanic apprentice during idle times, attending technical classes at Philadelphia's Franklin Institute.

At the age of 15, Simon was reading a book that showed how to build ships. He has since debuted how to build a submarine and has completed a small one. But what makes Simon wonder is how to store the necessary air for sailors. Simon made a tool that allowed him to learn the time in the water. He had pressed his head under the water to breathe but he hadn't done this experiment for a long time because a neighbor thought he had drowned, pulled his head up. Although with the sketchy tools, Simon found a way to make a tool that allowed him to breathe underwater for half an hour, then due to various experiments, he found the necessary breathing air volume in one unit of time.

In 1893, Simon Lake drew a picture of a submarine launching a ship into a warship, but the idea of ​​using a submarine into the military range did not appeal to him for long. Simon was also aware of the use of submarines in pearl exploration, exploiting oil fields, mines and salvaging sunken goods.

While Simon Lake was planning on his submarine, John Philip Holland also pursued the same purpose. When Simon was 11 years old, Holland built the Fenian Ram submarine for Irish comrades to sink the British ships, but then Holland had failed several times to temporarily abandon the research.

At that time, Simon Lake found that submarines had been closed in a wrong way. The ship has dived its nose like a dolphin, which makes it difficult to handle and the ship is easily plugged into the seabed. Simon then thought of a way to use small wings mounted at the nose and tail, to allow the submarine to come down and maintain its horizontal position, which is still used today by all the world's submarines.

Simon Lake also found a way to allow submarine sailors to go out to retrieve objects at the bottom of the sea. His submarine had a watertight two-door room, an open door and a door to the sea. When the sailor enters the room, he closes the door open to the ship's body and injects air into the room until the air pressure is high enough to hold the water outside, then the person opens the door to eat. through the sea. He also invented a safety device, attached to the crane, making the wheel in the shaft machine not reverse. This unit is later used on all ships with cranes.

2. Argonaut submarine.

One day in 1892, Simon Lake was reading a newspaper in which the US Navy Department called for the construction of a submarine. Lake immediately brought all the diagrams of his submarine to the Washington Capital, which was questioned by competent authorities for a moment and his plan was not taken care of. Maybe because Simon Lake was just a normal, well-dressed, money-free mechanic, no friends introduced, so his submarine was not accepted by the shipyard and contracted to build 150 ships. thousands of dollars on his rival John Philip Holland. At that time, Holland planned to build a Plunger-shaped submarine that looked like a cigar. Annoyed because the more perfect manufacturing project was not accepted, Simon Lake announced that he would not return to Washington Capital until the Navy Department invited him to come.

Simon Lake decided to build a submarine himself . He went to Wall Street to find supporters of manufacturing but failed. Lake returned to his family and asked for help from relatives. Therefore, the submarine Argonaut Jr. 4 meters long is made. The ship has tanks to draw in water, there are 3 wheels, the front wheels are for driving and the rear wheels are transported by a crank due to the strength of the person sitting in the train. Lake left the room open to the sea under the belly of the ship. The ship is driven down by a pipe attached to a float on the water.

The day of the submarine launch of Argonaut Jr. on the Shrewsbury River is done silently. Lake and a cousin used this submarine to cross the riverbed and return safely. Lake also observed aquatic life. With this submarine, Lake ran in New York Bay and was wearing his own diving suits and went to the seabed to explore. The success of the Argonaut Jr. making Simon Lake more confident. He planned to build a larger second submarine called Argonaut I in accordance with the project submitted to the Navy.

At that time, Simon Lake's uncle also invited a New York financier named Nathan Straus to examine the use of the submarine. Straus met Lake on a hot day. Inventor Lake brought the submarine to perform, but unfortunately at that time, there was a very large ship passing by, the waves beating the submarine into the bridge, causing some parts of the ship to be damage. Straus leaves and Lake misses a lucky occasion.

Due to insufficient money to pursue the construction, Simon Lake performed his submarine in public. Many people have doubts about submarine capabilities. They thought that the objects that the inventor picked up from the seabed were just a trick. Many people tried Simon Lake by tying a piece of wood with a name on a heavy object and throwing it into the sea. Lake picked up all of those objects to smash everyone's doubts, so Simon Lake sold the shares and Lake Torpedo Boat Company began building a large-sized submarine. The submarine was built entirely of metal, 12 meters long, with a motor running on it, moved underwater without being affected by storms. So many people have paid attention to it.

Simon Lake took this large submarine to the city of Bridgeport in Connecticut and invited the mayor, a few prominent figures and journalists to try the submarine. Twenty-eight of these visitors, in turn, invented the dive to the bottom of the harbor and visited the diver's room. The visit lasted for so long that a large number of people were on the verge of thinking that the submarine was in distress, so they were anxiously waiting to see the emergency ship work!

When the Cuban rebellion was fought against the Spanish, the exiled Cuban elements offered to buy Simon Lake's Argonaut submarine for $ 3 million but with two conditions: the money would be paid when the revolution The network was successful and had to let a Cuban naval officer try the ship before buying. With these two conditions, Simon Lake agreed but unfortunately for the inventor, in the trial of the Cuban officer officer unfamiliar with the high air pressure inside the ship, the negotiation was interrupted.

In 1898, the war between the United States and Spain broke out. Simon Lake brought his submarine to Hampton Roads to explore the river and specify the location of the mines. Lake then told the US Navy authorities about the submarine's ability to cut cables, remove torpedoes. Faced with obvious evidence that Lake showed, Navy officers were surprised but they were unaware of the new invention, claiming that Lake was a spy and threatened the inventor if he still did the work. the same, similar.

While Simon Lake was in trouble, Philip Holland was subsidized by Philadelphia's Electric Storage Battery Company and succeeded in a rather perfect submarine, which was approved by the Navy Department in 1900. The Navy Department set Holland to host 6 other submarines.

Despite being left by Holland, Simon Lake pursued research. He found that it was necessary to have a device that allowed sailors below the submarine to observe on the shore when the ship was diving. Lake asked the photographers but they shook their heads at the inventor's idea. So Lake had to do his own research. With the help of a scientist, Lake succeeded in making panoramic lenses ( periscope ). Later, Simon Lake was told that a British scientist Sir Howard Grubb had invented a similar device.

Simon Lake's submarine improvements made the high-ranking Navy officers pay attention. Lake then built a third 20-meter submarine called Protector with the intention of using the coastal defense. Lake visited War Secretary William Howard Taft and presented his initiative. The three officers were thus dispatched to the planned train test. The submarine Protector was allowed to dive into the water by the inventor for 10 hours and then move under the ice and practice the mines. In the face of this submarine, the examiners made a detailed statement with many compliments and the US Senate intended to vote for the invention but then in a dispute, the purchase Protector submarine is rejected.

3. Underground ships are used by many countries.

When the Russo-Japanese war took place in 1904, both countries sent people to buy Simon Lake's submarine. The inventor did not want to sell this weapon to any country but before the threat of bankruptcy, Lake had to choose Russia. The submarine Protector is mounted on a cargo ship and covered and transported to Russia. Simon Lake also followed with Russia under the assumed name of Elwood Simon.

In Russia, the submarine Protector was tested in Liepaja lake. The ship must swim from the sea, follow the meandering river without being discovered. After a difficult ordeal, the submarine Protector was transported by train to the port of Vladivostock. Then Lake closed Russia with a submarine of the same type. Unfortunately, Russia has used submarines too late, so it cannot change the situation of the war.

The use of submarines in Russia caused Krupp to pay attention. This is a large workshop specialized in manufacturing war weapons of Germany. Krupp intended to sign Simon Lake with a contract to build a submarine but the deal was torn down because Lake's invention was not guaranteed in Germany. Krupp later improved Simon Lake's submarine to a famous U-type submarine.

The use of submarines was later known to Americans. The US Navy ordered Simon Lake's Seal submarine and used it in 1912. Simon Lake was also ordered by the US government to build five more submarines. During the First Great War, Simon Lake's factory in Bridgeport, Ct., And Long Beach, Ca., produced more than 40 submarines for the US Navy.

In 1932, Simon Lake spent a sum of money to build an Explorer submarine for the purpose of exploring the ocean, searching for oil fields and picking up sunken treasures, but this work failed because lack of funds.

Simon Lake always fantasizes about the submarine's peaceful uses. As early as 1899, Mr. Lake defended the use of submarines in the Arctic expedition. Simon Lake claims that submarines are a means to allow adventurers to walk under the paint to explore unknown lands. This idea of ​​Simon Lake was later done perfectly by American atomic submarines.