The output in the “military campaign” was a combination of complicated and sometimes dangerous procedures. First submarine armed. To do this for the speakers 2 meters forward wheel iron log-bowsprit was tied mine in a peck of gunpowder, and is connected to it leads elektrozapalom. When attacking the bowsprit had to firmly stab into the wooden body of the victim and to stay in it. Then the commander took the boat for a few meters and blew up a mine. In addition, quite dangerous for the submarine to the way the enemy intended rockets to ignite the enemy “piece of wood.” They were placed in a tubular steel rails, three on each side. Provided even adjust the elevation angle by moving the front of the package of the pipes. It was assumed that the missiles will launch from half-sunk condition. But, to the powder in the rockets is not damp, the pipes before the dive had to close airtight rubber plugs. All this took a lot of time. Then climbed inside the team, using a special cargo door basement galvanic battery, and the hatches in both turrets were carefully satawalese. Under the weight of people and received cargo boat went under water on the deck. After that, the gate lifted from the bottom of the weights, and the submarine became almost underwater: above the surface of the water remained only the covers for the turrets. For a complete immersion advanced let water in the ballast tank.
The project of submarine K. Schilder with his notation:
And Luc; – towers; – funnel weights; With’ – lead weights; D – belt ropes; E — drive; an F — bowsprit; M – mine; P — galvanic conductor; N – stroke; h – propeller rollers; portholes; N – optic tube with reflective glass; N’ — pipe spuskanija in a boat of fresh air; R — rocket machines; S — lead ballast stowed with large gaps filled with water
From the description it is clear how dangerous and unfit for real battle was this procedure. Especially in the open sea where she is turned into a deadly trick. All this was evident when tested on the Kronstadt RAID, where the creation of Schilder tortured for seven years. The boat was not fast enough even to withstand the tidal otlicnom. The strokes is constantly breaking down, then purposeful movement finally became impossible. When firing rockets (surprisingly, this trick really happening even from a submerged position!) launch tube was filled with water and tried to sink the boat by changing the weight and balance. And, despite the fact that the tests with great effort managed to attach the charge to the still standing anchor “experimental purposes” and detonate it, the war Ministry from the boat rightly refused.
As usual, the inventor has tried by all means to “plug the holes”. In particular, he built a real, albeit primitive ship. But the first of its kind. It was a raft with a hole cut in the back, where, as in the dock, came submarine. The raft together with “underwater threat” could be towed as close to the enemy, while the boat did not suffer from the waves, and her dreary gear for swimming became more effective. Interestingly, the “mother ship” itself had firepower in the nose was located three launchers for missiles.
Not helped by attempts to replace the questionable strokes to something more progressive, namely, a water-jet engine. The idea failed because it brought all the same muscles teams. With this engine, in principle, it was impossible to reach any reasonable speed. Eventually the Treasury ceased to pay for rework and experiments and gave the submarine its author. For several years the boat was on the dock at the villas of Schilder, who had neither the strength nor the means to continue work. In the end, the General ordered to dismantle his creation and sold the mined metal. During the long years of exercise, he not only built a current submarine, but developed its “compact” version, to embody which in metal and failed.
Submarine Bauer “Brandtaucher”, Germany, 1850
Built at the shipyard “Swaffel und Property” in Kiel. Type of construction-single -. Displacement overwater/underwater – 27,5/30,5 t Dimensions: length – about of 8.07 m, width – 2,0 m, height – 3.06 m (with cabin – 3,51 m). Case material – iron. Immersion depth maximum 20 m. the Motor – muscular force, screw. Arms – powder charge installed on the enemy ship. Crew – 4 people Sank on trials in February 1851.
Submarine Bauer “Hipponion”, England, rough draft drawing Bauer, 1854
Type of construction-single -. They have a displacement of around 40 tons Dimensions: length — about 12,56 m, width — 3,45 m, height — 3,77 m. body Material is iron. Engine – gas car explosive action power 96 HP Armament – powder charge installed under an enemy ship. Crew – 3 people. the Project was not implemented
Submarine Bauer “Seeteufel” – “monkfish,” the alleged scheme, device, Russia, 1855
Built on the plant of the Prince of Leuchtenberg in St. Petersburg. Type of construction – single -. Full displacement – 47 tons Dimensions: length -15,8 m, width: -3,78 m, height – 3,35 m. body Material is iron. Immersion depth maximum 20 m. the Motor – muscular force, screw. Arms – powder charge installed on the enemy ship by a diver. The crew – 13 people Sank on trials in October 1856.
Not to say that shillerovsky submarine was a big leap forward, but nevertheless a definite step in the history of underwater technology they have become. It was the first time the boat was made of metal and carried the original missile. In addition, for the first time on her observations from an underwater position the periscope was used, albeit rather primitive. The main trouble in her life became… the lack of military action. In peacetime the powers that be treated the submarines very cold, but during the war years the activity of both parties – inventors and potential customers increased dramatically.
An example of this can be the fate and activities of the German “submarine” Wilhelm Bauer. In 1848, at the age of just 26 years young corporal had the opportunity to participate in the war of Prussia against Denmark, and to observe how he behaved with impunity off the coast of Schleswig by the Danish Navy, radically superior to the sea forces of the enemy. Of course, the German patriot had a desire to change the situation through the use of “secret weapons”.
Corporal resigned and started a new case. The shape of the hull of his submarine, he spied the dolphins is a relatively streamlined blunt nose and a more narrow and long aft. Bauer quickly fashioned a working model and after the show it got money for the construction of this ship, collected as donations from military and civilian German patriots, it is hard experiencing the humiliation of his country at sea.
Just over a year until the war was still going on, in 1850, the inventor managed to build a full-scale boat, who had some interesting technical features. As the engine used is still the same muscular strength, but it is used more intelligently than its predecessors. Divers rotated quite a large wheel with steps on which were simultaneously crossed by two crew members – in the manner of a huge version of the famous “squirrel cage”. Through the gear drive, the rotation is transferred to a three-blade propeller. Even more ingenious was the device for adjusting the immersion and emersion. Is has become almost traditional horizontal rudders Bauer used a long rail running along the bottom of the boat, which could be moved to a heavy metal weight, changing balance in the diametrical plane. The idea is that to raise or lower the nose theoretically possible even in the absence of progress, however, the submarine is in this neutral position was too “sensitive” that even a slight movement of cargo by rail could lead to the formation of strong trim. On the move “the regulator” were less sensitive, but still, the potential danger of arbitrary depth care remained. And she realized at the most inopportune moment, when Bauer along with his “team” from the blacksmith and the carpenter decided for the first time to go on a RAID of the Keel. However, the insidious (and heavy) cargo easily slipped along the rail, the boat sharply pecked his nose and quickly rushed to the bottom. Depth (about 20 m) was sufficient to dense stone, “Brandtaucher” (hard translated into Russian the name, literally means something like “underwater.”) stuck in the mud, receiving substantial damage. Down came a hand pump for pumping water from the ballast tank to the top through slits in the excess start to do the same water.
In the “team” of random people started understandable panic. Brave corporal suppressed a pointless and dangerous rebellion, swinging a heavy tool. He managed to persuade fellow sufferers to spend a long six hours until, until the pressure remaining in the housing of the air (and the boat filled up with water to three quarters) not balanced with external. Bauer then opened the hatch in the wheelhouse, and the crew safely emerged to the surface, the expression “commander”, “like champagne corks”. So took the first exit from the sunken boats: a real miracle of self-control to barely literate and completely unprepared people!
Even this undoubted failure has acquired a respectable legends. In many German “Patriotic” publications of different time describes how the Danish Navy, only seeing the strange ship, hastily weighed anchor and retreated in disarray. In fact, of course, the Danes on the exercise of the Bauer didn’t even know existed, about the same as almost a century ago, the British about the “turtle attack” boats of the Bushnell.
While there were all these interesting events, the war with Denmark came to an end. The inventor then refused to allocate funds for the “intensive care” of his brainchild, and Bauer went to “people”: he appealed to the Bavarian king Ludwig (a curious move to try to get support from the same land-ruler, but a lover of all kinds of innovations), and the Austrian Emperor received him personally, Franz Joseph I, the threats to the inventor very well. But the Emperor was persuaded entourage, including the Minister of trade, who shrewdly realized that the idea of submarine warfare in the end could hurt his Department. Next destination was England, where Bauer made their way to the husband of Queen Victoria Prince albert, the good, the descent was a Bavarian and took the trouble to read the letters of his cousin king Ludwig. The Prince was also interested in the possibilities of the underwater vessel and requested the opinion of the famous physicist Michael Faraday. The response was positive. It would seem to punch the corporal, who at the time were barely 30 years old, opened a wide road.
Submarine Geren, II, Russia, 1855
Built on mechanical plant brothers Fricke in Saint-Petersburg. Type of construction – single -. Displacement – about 6 t Dimensions: length – 5.0 m, a width of about 1.1 m, height – 2,5 m. body Material is iron. Immersion depth 2 m. Engine muscular strength, screw. Arms – powder charge installed on the enemy ship, with a remote control explosion. Crew-4 pers. were Tested in 1855 – 1861, adopted, not adopted, demolished in 1872 a – longitudinal section; b – plan;
1 – a wooden platform; 2 – floats of the ventilation pipes; 3 – vent line valves; 4 – the binnacle; 5 – pump blower ventilation; 6 – observation cap; 7 – flywheel with gear transmission; 8 – the handle of the handwheel; 9 – propeller shaft screw
Submarine Gehren, I – Brender, Russia, 1854
Built in the workshops of the revel port. Type of construction – single -. Displacement – about 6 t Dimensions: length – 5.0 m, a width of about -1.0 m, height – 2 m. the body Material is iron. Immersion depth 2 m. Engine muscular strength, screw. Arms — powder charge installed on the enemy ship, with a remote control explosion. Crew-4 pers. was Tested in 1854, for service is not accepted, disassembled
But in practice it was not easy. Bauer was sent to the breeder-the shipbuilder John Scott Russell, who was ordered “to assist”. However, the Englishman pretracheal command very freely. It turned out that he has a “private project.” In fact, the blueprints of a new submarine developed by the same German corporal, temporarily until the issues are settled, who worked in the firm of Russell. The inventor, who had a practical (and as we know, pretty sad) experience, managed to eliminate a number of defects in the new version, called “Gionee”. The boat grew in size, lost the ill-fated balancing weight on the rail and, most importantly, had to get a real engine! The choice fell on the “gas machine” of the British engineer brown, in which the piston is driven by the rapid combustion (in fact, explosion) of small doses of powder in an atmosphere of ammonia. The idea is that the power is about 100 HP would be good enough, although the reliability of such a “machine” caused great doubts. However, before the test is not reached. Intervened, as usual, money. 7000 pounds initially allocated Bauer, successfully intercepted a Russell, presumptuous pledged to build a “more advanced” submarine. In the end hurt all parties: sassy shipbuilder has suffered a complete fiasco, his “product” went to the bottom of the wall at the first test, the Treasury has lost pounds, and in fact Rob Bauer with empty pockets and his ideas departed from England, hitting soon to its military enemy.
By that time in distant Russia began the Crimean war. The superiority of the enemy fleets of the two world’s leading naval powers -Britain and France – was not even the overwhelming, almost absolute. It is not surprising that it was felt the urgent need to “wonder weapons” that could be just a submarine. Inventors of a different family and tribe is much livelier. If all since the beginning of the nineteenth century, decades in the Marine scientific Committee, specially created for consideration of innovations has received less than a dozen projects, since the beginning of the war until 1856 there were already over 30. Among the applicants was a farmer Dmitry Mikhailov, presented two projects, the actual boats and “underwater drilling machine” for the destruction of enemy ships; his colleague with the famous literary name Onegin; “Slobodskoy tradesman” Basil Eminov; citizen’s Field, winner of the trivial name Nicopole; a number of retired military (for some reason mostly cavalry); doctor of philosophy, lecturer of the corps of pages, Schellenberg and many others, on which there were only initials on the title pages. Not far behind, and foreign applicants: who not only presented their projects: Belgians, Americans, Germans, Romanians, “Sardinian citizen,” Alexander Ghana, even the Greek Georgios Saltoglu island Syrah. However, almost all great light-gathering ideas went straight into the trash: despite some reasonable elements, the possibility of their implementation is close to zero, that is well understood specialists pass their tough but fair decisions.
Against this background differed offer the long-suffering Bauer: its because the boat has really sailed, though, and sank. In the United States of the invention of a German corporal understanding is not met (we’ll see shortly that there is, and without enough enthusiasts in this area), and it has migrated to Russia. The war office were attracted primarily to the high degree of the readiness of the project, with the successful implementation of which the submarine could attack the siege of the allied fleet in the Baltic, pokolban bezrazbornoe power “Europeans”, as really it has made Russian weapons of mine.
Bauer received the support of high personages and money to build. Less than a year at the St. Petersburg plant, which was owned by the Duke of Leuchtenberg, managed to build a submarine, in fact its largely repeats the first version of the German inventor. (It never received an official name, the author himself called it “Seeteufel” – “monkfish”). After this quick start it started the usual paperwork, brought all efforts to nothing. Within half a year (!) “product” weighing about 50 MT could not translate from the factory in Kronstadt. Only the intervention of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich has not allowed to bury the “alien” ship is still at this stage. After his shout, the submarine is delivered to destination in a matter of days. Meanwhile, the winter approached, suitable for water time was less. And now Bauer has decided to make additional changes. In the end, with the time before the tests, passed the whole year, as much as took the actual building.
“Monkfish” largely repeated the first “guarding” the boat of its author, but at a much larger size. Doubled length and the number of “squirrel wheel” – up to four, each rotated by two members of the team, now comprised of 13 people. The trim changed with the same cargo, but has now moved it along the length of the housing through a worm gear that prevents inadvertent slippage that killed the “ancestor”. For dipping served three ballast tanks with a total capacity of 22.5 t Curious innovation was the portholes in the wheelhouse and in the upper part of the body, made of pure crystal with a thickness of 50 mm. They provided a good overview of the water and decent lighting inside the case at a shallow depth. Another interesting element of the equipment of steel pipe suspended from Podolak (the ceiling). They have a special pump to continuously pump water discharged through the small holes in the pipes in the manner of a kind of soul. Bauer believed that such aeration will solve the problem with the refreshing air. Breathing did become easier, but only up to a noticeable depletion of oxygen. Bauer supplied the submarine even a closet, found a place in the aft and is equipped with a system of valves and pumps. In General, it is a workable precursor of the modern boat toilet. But arming Bauer did not go well. “Giperiona” he suggested to place two “underwater mortar” thing is somewhat nebulous due to the complete lack of it in reality, and he went back to the good old powder charge, again, a very significant weight — 30 pounds, almost half a ton. Undoubtedly, the explosion of such mines could put on the bottom of even the biggest battleship of the time, but the installation charge was met by insurmountable difficulties. The author assumed that to carry out a diversion will be a member of the crew from the wheelhouse, working with hands in rubber gloves, hermetically fixed in the holes in the Board. What happened at the trials to suggest is simple: the pressure of the water got inside the gloves, thread in their hands, it was absolutely impossible. Moreover, while trying to still attach a charge to a log in rubber opened holes through which to shelter, and then in hull gushed water. Boat almost sank, it was saved by the truly heroic efforts, continuously pumping out the water all night.
Made wise by bitter experience, the inventor has decided to entrust the work of installing the mine to the diver. To do this in the middle of the body (to not break balance in length) equipped with a sealed camera gateway. So in the Russian-German boat came back an old idea, proposed Petrovsky peasant Efim Nikonov almost half a century ago.
The boat had experienced very intensely, it was 133 immersion, in the main, quite successful. Sometimes the submarine stayed under water for up to 8 hours, moving back and forth, maneuvering, submerged and surfaced. Of course, not all shortcomings have been overcome; for example, when you try to give a complete course of “the squirrel wheel” plays out in 17 minutes, moving the “Line” only 1 cable length, which would correspond to a speed of only about one third of the site. Say “would” because even this insignificant value could not be achieved due to the complete exhaustion of the forces of the “engine”. About “water exercises with the gloves,” we mentioned, and the case flowed mercilessly: at a depth of meters, the water flowed like streams, and with further immersion, the mass of air bubbles escaping from the boats, did the water on the surface “boiling”. It is clear that in combat conditions to detect such a “secret vessel” would be easy.
The layout of the submarine Geren IV variant (reconstruction] A. B.):
1 – a permeable nose tip of the damper; 2 – underwater anchor; 3 – ballast tank; 4 – valves ballast tank and airlock; 5 – drawer with life belts; 6 – nasal eye; 7 – hatch diver; 8 – winch underwater anchors; 9 – hoist Kingston ballast tank (port side); 10 – winch of Kingston and the nose compartment (starboard side); 11 – air pump (on the left side); 12 – bilge pump (starboard); 13 – a tank of sodium lime; 14 – oxygen cylinders; 15 – a surge tank; 16 – a retractable tower with seal; 17 – the coal pit; 18 – steam boiler; 19 – a tank of liquid fuel (starboard); 20 – thruster; 21 – vozdukhoplavatel (port side); 22 – propeller shaft; 23 – vertical steering rudder; 24 – baller horizontal steering wheel; 25 – a vertical rudder; 26 – hydroplanes; 27 – the screw propeller; 28 – feed the eye; 29 – Kingston equalization tank; 30 – torpedo O. B. Guerin
Submarine Geren, option IV, Russia, 1867
Built at the Alexandrovsky foundry and mechanical plant in St. Petersburg. Type of construction – single -. Full load displacement — 25 t Dimensions: length – 12.0 m, a width of about 2.0 m, height – 2.0 m. the body Material is iron. Immersion depth 2 m. Engine: steam/pneumatic machine, power 6 HP Armament – torpedo pendant with a pneumatic motor system of Göhren. The crew — 8 people Tested in 1867 — 1875 years, for service is not accepted, disassembled
But to practical use, it never came. On the first test, which can be called official (it was attended by representatives of the army and Navy, including engineers “with degrees”), it all went wrong. The boat had to pass invisibly under the bot, which was specifically placed on the shallow and muddy place with lots of algae. The result is clear: trying to maneuver to dive under the boat, the submarine is nuzzled in the bottom and its propeller got tangled in the weeds. Bauer ordered a ballast, balance, abruptly reversed, the nose jumped out of the water. Further events are interpreted quite differently. According to one of the first opened the hatch and jumped out the commander, Navy Lieutenant H. A. F., with “not closed the door”. The water ran into the open hatch, and the crew at the command of a former corporal quickly left your ship. In another embodiment (by the way, came in the official report) that the flight was headed by Bauer. The truth is not easy to restore, but the result in any case was sad. “Monkfish” sank to a depth of six meters, however, the whole “devil’s dozen” team managed to escape.
Bauer once again showed his tireless energy, and the submarine was raised in less than a month. Had to fix the bent screw and the wheel, and testing could continue. But Maritime authorities, frankly, not very fond of the inventor-“dropout” and scheming against the “German” who just then was awarded the title “submarine engineer” with a specially designed form, reached its climax. Instead of shipping to the factory, “the Hell,” threw it on the deserted Bank of the Neva river, 20 miles from Ohta, and decided his fate. Conclusion of the Commission was negative on all counts, Bauer acknowledged not fulfilled the contract and therefore not deserving of reward. “Submarine engineer” was still trying to fight, proposing the project “submarine Corvette”, armed with four cannons with separate engines for surface (steam) and underwater (pneumatic) stroke. In response, he received an offer to go to build your ship… in Siberia, in Irkutsk, as if to better keep the work secret. The long-suffering inventor understood the hint and at the first opportunity left Russia.
Thus ended the second story (after Schilder) real Russian attempts to acquire underwater vehicle. In essence, the conclusions were, of course, are true: neither one nor the other submarines were not any full-fledged weapon. However, prolonged cessation of work in this area led to the inevitable lag, unlike the US, where “trial and error” led in the end to create a “real” boat and brought the country to the top of the underwater shipbuilding.
Tireless and Bauer continued their attempts in the homeland. In 1861 with the help of the Bavarian magazine of horticulture and landscape architecture (!) he tried to raise the necessary funds to build his “submarine Corvette” called “Costenbader” (translation – something like “coastal guardian”). Most interesting project was a universal mechanical engine – gas turbine, operating by the combustion of kerosene in oxygen. The idea, of course, far ahead of time: a single engine was introduced in submarines only after 75 years. In addition, a former corporal, has really become not only a highly qualified engineer, but to some extent, and chemist, managed to devise a system of regeneration of air by absorption of carbon dioxide and enrichment with oxygen obtained by the decomposition of manganese dioxide. However, his ideas did not find understanding even in the years next the Danish-Prussian war, and Bauer died in poverty and obscurity from tuberculosis.
It is interesting to compare his efforts in Russia with the fate of another author underwater vessels, also German, but “of domestic origin”. Young engineer-fortifier Lieutenant Ottomar (later to become Constantine) Gern has started even before Bauer, developed and built in 1854 in Reval (Tallinn) his first submarine in the very short term and incredibly cheap, only 1,000 rubles (Borowski “monkfish” cost 75 times more expensive!). The reason was the amazing simplicity of the design and the materials used. Body made of wood, in fact, two boats, connected by the upper parts of the sides in the form of a kind of “shell”. No ballast tanks: immersion water were taken directly into the hold, and for the ascent thence suction hand pump. It is clear that such a primitive boat inevitably would have gone down if not for two of the float, which ended in a vent pipe, speaking up to two meters. They kept the submarine afloat and allowed to freshen the air in a close building.
In addition, interest was the “engine” as usual, muscular, but providing for the application of flywheel energy storage and provides smooth operation. Armament consisted of traditional “mines”, located at the bow and installed… it is not clear how. However, the matter never came: the test the Commission quickly became convinced that the boat is actively leaking water and very poorly managed (apparently mainly due to the saving of floats). However, the designer not only “refused to trust”, but, on the contrary, found the project promising and worthy of implementation in the metal. However, the prototype was dismantled – “reasons of security”.
Gern again quickly coped with the task, completing the design and construction (Mechanical plant Fricke on Vasilievsky island) railway option by the summer of 1855. The second boat has retained many features of the first: the same case as two “boats” (though now the top, “inverted”, became flat, and the lower on the contrary, gained sharp contours), the filling of ballast water in the “hold” of the case, the drive flywheel ventilation pipe with floats on the top (in this embodiment a rubber sleeve). Not without modifications, made a rough “sketch” much more suited to action. In the middle of the body at the top there was a glass dome, protected by an iron grating, which served both hatch for the crew. Directly underneath in the bottom part was diving camera: now have someone and how to set the taper charge attached to the hull in the bow. (Undermining assumed to carry electrical circuit connected to a battery inside the boat, departed to a safe distance). The air is now pumped through the inside of the air pump driven by the “main engine”, that is, the same people spins the flywheel.
Overall, the boat was still raw in all respects, both in design and figuratively. When testing the water gushing through all the rivets. No wonder the author did not use any internal set, and no “skeleton” 3-mm iron sheets are deformed by even small external pressure. However, the project was again considered promising. However, the traditional red tape “eaten” idea and with a favorable attitude. The decision to replace the hull plates on the thicker adopted, and implemented only a few years later. In fact, the case is completely disassembled and assembled a new one, and in spite of this, garnovskaya the boat remained the champion of cheapness: the Treasury spent on it with all changes less than four and a half thousand rubles – a mere pittance compared to projects Bauer.
Tests of the updated submarine took place only in 1861. The boat is now not flowing and decently managed, but the problem with the speed stayed, as the muscles theoretically could accelerate a heavy body with additional resistance from ventilation pipes and floats. Completely failed and complicated procedure of fastening the charge – using the same busalacchi borer. And again Gern was not given the heave-Ho, and offered to revise the draft using the engine of another type, “inhuman”.
The designer immediately started to work and in the same year, gave the fourth option. The new boat has doubled in tonnage (16 t), while maintaining the basic technical solutions. With the exception of engine: obedient inventor has recruited the famous chemist H. A. Petrashevsky (relative of the more famous revolutionary), who tried to adapt “atmospheric machine” the Frenchman Lenoir is a type of internal combustion engine, running on illuminating gas, replacing it with the liquefied ammonia. It certainly increased the power density (the original “motor” of Lenoir is fit for submarines because of their “hiloti”), but were extremely impractical. The ammonia could easily deal with the crew by poisoning him, or, in the alternative, to explode with the same ultimate effect. Willy-nilly had Gern back to normal “rotators flywheel”. Although their number in comparison with the previous project quadrupled, speed – floor-site – was completely insignificant. As a weapons system, is not detached from the battery wires and thumb to secure it. The boat experienced in Kolpino calm pond, where she rather famously sank and maneuvered, but bring it into the open sea without even trying. In 1872, it was quietly dismantled at the same time with the predecessor. From the fourth version Geren did not have any drawings. But again, great harm to the Treasury he did not bring the aimed in a very modest 7 thousand rubles.
Provided now himself, thrust the inventor has not dropped the case, but rather approached more fundamentally, slowly reworking and changing everything could change. It took him much more time, but the result was significant. After reviewing the project, completed in 1866, the Naval Ministry immediately allocated funds for its implementation in the metal. Indeed, the submarine gained a much more modern look and the many technical “chips” were well thought out, at least in theory. Inside the case was divided curved partitions into three compartments, of which the “residential” was only average. Rather ridiculous and dangerous to use the air tubes with floats gave way to a compact cabin that served the same purpose and could be pushed or fall to a certain distance, playing extended role, however small, of the float (at the same time it was located the door). Plashy is dangerous to “hold” water in the ship appeared normal ballast tanks plus heavy underwater anchor. Looked solid and equipment for navigation and control, including such a thin device as the automatic control of the horizontal rudders, allowing to keep a given depth by a hydrostatic sensor. But the main “highlight” of the project was the engine, under the action of steam, but truly multi-fuel. On the surface of the boiler stoked with coal or even firewood, and the care under the water switched to liquid fuel and turpentine, served atomized in a stream of compressed air. And because this system really worked! However, with a fair amount of “fly in the ointment”: the products of combustion of even high-calorie of turpentine should have been output, and the boat dragged a clearly visible trail of bubbles. Gern showed considerable ingenuity and knowledge, trying to improve the engine. He even replaced the turpentine with the air on “rocket composition” burning yourself and not rozhodovani the air. Do not dwell on this (somewhat explosive) idea, the engineer offered to replace vapor in the compressed air, turning the steam engine into the motor. And this, too, failed to realize. Although, of course, a range of pneumatic turned out to be insignificant, not more than one mile. But no trace on the surface of the water the boat did not leave. Inspired by the inventor wanted to replace and impractical to charge with dreary installing it, creating a huge torpedo, also fitted with pneumatic engine … and weighed 6 tons! It was supposed to mount under the hull. It is easy to assume that the first a good start would be wiped “off the face of the water” any big ship, including the already began to appear in armadillos. And after re-resistant designer managed to make such a super-weapon in the metal, building the torpedo-monster in the factory of Baird in 1872.
However, to test his ideas in practice, and the ability to replace the pneumatic engine to the electric motor (which would make the sub highly advanced), exercise Gern failed. Year after year passed the test and persistent reorganizations, and so the whole decade from 1866 to 1875. Finally the Ministry of the Navy bothered to allocate new funds, and in 1876 the project was finally closed. The first serial Russian submarine was quite a different “product”…
It would seem that after Robert Fulton managed to create an almost working submarine, the diving business had to go forward with good speed. However, the main engine of progress in this area was the war, and after the bloodiest of the Napoleonic era in Europe and America came a lull. Of the immediate followers of Fulton can be mentioned is that the brothers Kössen, who had just “to the table” and built in 1810 in Le Havre an obvious rip-off of the first “Nautilus”. (Actually, the brothers did not hide a “source of inspiration”, even naming his creation “the Submarine Nautilus”).