Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 138, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 June 1918 — Diving Bell to Raise Treasures of the Deep [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Diving Bell to Raise Treasures of the Deep

Wonderful Submarine la the Invention of W. D. Simon, an American Engineer

Millions and possibly billions of dollars worth of treasures now lying on file ocean floor in sunken ships may be regained to the world by the “cannon ” The great diving bell has just been completed and is now being tested. It resembles a cannon ball, a giant sphere, eight feet in diameter. The shell is made of tough vanadium steel, one and one-fourth inches in thickness and weighs, with the machinery inside, six tons. The submarine works by maneuvering huge steel pontoons alongside a sunken ship, bolting the pontoons to the vessel and thus releasing the mechanism which pumps the pontoons free of water and raises thS sunken ship. The largest pontoons are 40 feet long and 15 feet in diameter, and have a lifting power of 300 tons each. Two operators form the crew of the diving bell and they work in normal atmospheric conditions because of an oxygen tank on top of the sphere. The air supply will last for 72 hours without being replenished. The supporting caMe and all electrical and telephone wires are carried In an insulated cable, which is strong enough to support 56 tons. Two propellers and a rudder give the ball lateral movement and two propellers send it up and down. These propellers push the ball through the water at two miles per hour. In front of the ball are four 3,000 candle power nitrogen lamps, covered with a steel net, and a two-lnch glass, to light up the hulls of the sunken ships, each light is a lookout lens four Inches in thickness. On the front are huge magnets, which draw the ball to the hull of the sunken vessel.