Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 July 1891 — TO LIFT SUNKEN SHIPS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TO LIFT SUNKEN SHIPS.

ADevlce in the Shape ot Air Balls of Steel. , Working models of a new device for raising sunken or wrecked vessels have been exhibited both in this city and in Washington. It is claimed that this system is the only one that will work successfully in raising vessels sunk at sea which have heretofore been abandoned after as large a part ol 1 the cargo has been saved as possible by sending divers down to the vessel. The inventor of this new device claims that he can raise a vessel of 3,003 tons in less than ten minutes’ time. The apparatus consists of an iron sphere twenty feet in diameter and made perfectly air-tight. From six to eight of these spheres are needed for thq raising of a vessel of 3,000 tons burden. They are practically steel pontoons. At the top of these pontoons is an air valve opening downward into'the interior of the sphere, while at the bottom is a valve opening outward. They have a capacity for containing 5,333 cubic feet of air, and each pontoon has a lifting capacity of from 500 to 700 tons. The exterior shell of the pontoons is of steel one■quarter of an inch thick, braced latitudinally and longitudinally. When the wreck is reached water is pumped into the pontoons and they are sunk over the wreck at the point needed. Their course is guided by chains working from derricks on the deck of the wrecking vessel. Outside of the pontoons is a heavy network of iron bracing, inclosing it like a jacket. At the bottom of the pontoon is a heavy iron chain, fastened to the outside bracing, and at the lower end of the chain is a strong double catch hbok. A diver is sent down with each pontoon as it is lowered to the position needed, and by descending the ladder he is able to fix this catch hook upon

the hawser block or stanchion on the deck of the sunken vessel. When a vessel is resting on the bottom it always has a list to one side. The plan adopted by the managers of this new system, is to lower two pontoons, one at the bow and the other at the stern of the vessel, on the other side to which she is listed and then pump out enough water supplying the space with air to right the vessel. Thpn the other pontoons are lowered and placed in position, two at the bow, two at tbe stern, and two, four or more amidships as may be needed. Then the pumping apparatus is set at work on the wrecking tug, and it is claimed that the water in the pontoons can be forced out through the outlet at the bottom at the rate of forty barrels a minute, and that in eight minutes the sphere will b 9 filled with air and be floating on the surface of the water. The wrecked vessel is not raised above the water, but is brought near the surface. In this manner the vessel is towed to the nearest port and placed in the dry dock. — New York Herald.