Stories of Inventors - The Adventures of Inventors and Engineers by Russell Doubleday
page 108 of 140 (77%)
page 108 of 140 (77%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
buoyancy, so that if anything should happen to the machinery they would
rise unaided to the surface. Compressed air was turned into the ballast tanks, the water forced out so that the boat's buoyancy was increased, and she floated in a semi-awash, or light, condition. The engineer turned off the current from the storage batteries, threw off the motor from the propeller shaft, and connected the gasoline engine, started it up, and inside of five minutes from the time the _Fulton_ was navigating the waters of the Sound at a depth of thirty feet she was sailing along on the surface like any other gasoline craft. And so the ninety-mile journey down Long Island Sound, partly under water, partly on the surface, to New York, was completed. The greater voyage to the Delaware Capes followed, and at all times the little sixty-three-foot boat that was but eleven feet in diameter at her greatest girth carried her crew and equipment with perfect safety and without the least inconvenience. Such a vessel, small in size but great in destructive power, is a force to be reckoned with by the most powerful battle-ship. No defense has yet been devised that will ward off the deadly sting of the submarine's torpedo, delivered as it is from beneath, out of the sight and hearing of the doomed ships' crews, and exploded against a portion of the hull that cannot be adequately protected by armour. Though the conning-dome of a submarine presents a very small target, its appearance above water shows her position and gives warning of her approach. To avoid this tell-tale an instrument called a periscope has been invented, which looks like a bottle on the end of a tube; this has |
|