Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 56, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 March 1920 — SEA TREASURE LURE TO DIVERS [ARTICLE]

SEA TREASURE LURE TO DIVERS

Ingenious Mechanisms Devised to Recover Some of Wrecks Beneath Waves. ARMORED SUIT IS DESCRIBED Inventor Explains Device Which Enables Him to Work Freely Under 7,000-Pound Pressure — Two ■ Claim Deep-Sea Record. New York.—Before the Germans sank a single vessel in the late war, it was estimated that there were strewn upon the floors of the Seven Seas. $7,000,000,000 worth of ships and cargoes, and records indicated that a large part of these were recoverable. Since the war the suin of the ocean’s buried treasure is practically incalculable. Naturally nations pow vie with one another for the recovery of choice morsels of this treasure trove, and individual inventors are devoting- genius and energy to the evolution of salving devices ranging In size from the one-man diving suit to complicat-

ed mechanisms so large—that they dwarf the seagoing vessels of which they are integral parts. Benjamin Franklin Leavitt of Brooklyn, Inventor of a diving suit, who claims the deep-sea record, talked enthusiastically yesterday about what can be accomplished in recovering the shimmering treasures of gold and silver and precious stones with which old ocean’s floor is carpeted. _ -— ________ Incidentally. Mr. Leavitt protests most emphatically against the assumption of world-record honors for any other diving armor than his own. He backs his protest in these statements: “I not only hold the record for deepsea diving, but for deep-sea salvage. I went down 361 feet in Grand Traverse Bay, Michigan, and remained down for 45 minutes the first time, and at another tim? nearly two hours. This is the world's record descent Capt. John Morgan of the Morgan Transportation company, a cousin of the late J. P. Morgan, did the sounding. He took three soundings, using a wire sounder, and there Is no possibility of error. Twenty-six witnessed the descent. This was in 1016.

Two Claim Deep-Sea Record. "I see by some of the newspapers that a Mr. Turner claims the world record. The statement is made that Mr. Turner went down 360 feet 15 miles off Graves Light. Massachusetts. Look at this chart. Conceding that Turner went down and did everything he said he did. if you can find a 360foot depth anywhere 15 miles off Graves Light Til eat the map. Here’s 49 fathoms—294 feet—the deepest water 15 miles off the light.” Coming now to the question of his diving suit, Mr. Leavitt said that its principal point of advantage is in the air-supply arrangement. "My suit.” said he. "is self-contain-ed, carrying enough air for a fourhour submergence. The oxygen tank Is connected with a reducing valve which reduces the pressure from 1,800 pounds to 2 pounds to the square Inch, and, ■ spraying through a nozzle, sucks nitrogen through a caustic soda cartridge. It mixes with the nitrogen and is discharged over the shoulder of the diver from a tube. The caustic soda absorbs the poisonous carbon dioxide and moisture. To protect the man from the caustic soda, 1 use an automatic valve that closes In three seconds after the water reaches It “The suit Itself weighs 350 pounds and with me in ft weighed just 506 pounds. The suit’s buoyancy, however, counteracts 425 pounds of that, leaving a balance of 75 pounds that I bear on the bottom of the sea. Mr. Leavitt regretted that he could not show the armor just as Lt was when be went down in Grand Traverse Bay, but he explained, he had made several important improvements since that descent. v' 1 r

“I learned a lot,” he said; “in fact, I might say I learned more from my first 45 minutes actual experience down on the bottom, in my armor, than I learned from years of theorizing. Take the jointed strut rods down the sides of the legs and both sides of the arms, for Instance.- They were added after my descent.” Leavitt’s Diving Armor. Here he reassembled the armor to show how it worked. The legs and arms, which are very flexible, are made of hard-rolled -copper tubing, guaranteed to stand 700 pounds of pressure to the square inch. “These hinged strut rods dowrf both sides of the arm,” said Mr. Leavitt, “take the pressure from the wrist to the shoulder. The shoulder is a solid casting of manganese bronze and has a ball-bearing which allows the man within to move his arms, which would not be possible without ball or roller bearings.” Here Mr. Leavitt whirled the arm around freely to Illustrate his point. “At a submergence of 361 feet there Is 6,664 pounds pressure here.” Hq called attention to the fact that the cable attached to the top of the helmet has a guaranteed lifting strength of 20,000 pounds. In the center of the cable ts the telephone "wire, connected directly with a small complete telephone in the top of the helmet. “The diver is “connected” simply

with dictaphone ear pieces. The helmet is also equipped with glasses which are triple and nonshatterable. The top of Mr. Leavitt’s desk boasts a miscellaneous assortment of ornaments. Here is a piece of hardwood brought up from a wreck., The wood had been 52 years beneath Lake Huron, Mich., but shows no ill effect from Its long submergence. Less pleasant, If jyiore interesting, is a strange old black shoe with wide square toe. “A piece of the foot of the girl who had been wearing it slipped out of the shoe after we'd had it here a while," said Mr. Leavitt. Salving a Copper Cargo. He wears a strange old ring fished up during his salvaging operations. This was found in connection with the 350 tons of copper which went down in the Pewablc in Lake Huron, in 1865. The copper. was salvaged from a depth of 180 feet. Mr. Leavitt says other salvagers had tried to get it and failed, and no less than seven divert in rubber suits had lost their lives in vain attempts. “It Is not possible to do salvaging work in winter, except in southern waters. Winter is the off season,” said Mr. Leavitt “But next summer, along about June, we propose to go after the Merida, which went down 52 miles off Cape Charles. She was carrying $1,800,000 in silver bars alone. Silver then was worth only about 49 cents an ounce, and it has gone up a lot since. Besides that, there is SIOO,OOO in money in the safe in the purser’s office." _ It was pointed out by Mr. Leavitt that £1,000,000 sterling had already been recovered by British government divers i from the White Star Dominion liner Laurentic, which was sunk in 1917 off Fasad Light. When questioned about the possibility of getting good divers, Mr. Leavitt replied: “Good men are scarce, as you know, for diving or anything else. Still, you can usually get a man, and, if you direct him, he can do almost anything. But usually, if thrown on his own resources, he will be almost helpWhen asked about the possibility of getting the cargo lost when the-tor-pedoed Lusitania went . down, Mr. Leavitt said it should certainly be possible. “In my armor, I can, if necessary, descend 1,000 feet,” he said. “The Lusitania is in 285 feet of water. As to the value of salvage, there is $2,500,000 gold in her and $5,000,000 worth of imperishable freight, such as copper. brass, iron, etc. There are also $5,000,000 worth of negotiable securities, quite apart from the valuables, -jewelry“and cash of passengers. “Tne Arabic, lying about sixty miles from * the Lusitania, has $5,000,000 gold in her. She Is in about 315 feet of water.” Mr. Leavitt said that the position of these ships would not change perceptibly, as there wps at most, a four-knot current at such depths.