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MARINE REVIEW. VonuV. CLEVELAND, OHIO, THURSDAY, MAY 19, 1892. No. 21. Baker Sub-Marine Torpedo Boat. It may seem strange 'to naval architects and me- chanical engineers that a Chicago business man should invent and. have built a successful sub-ma- rine boat. The most prac- tical results in navigation under water were obtained by Nordenfeldt, but the first experimental trials of the boat illustrated below have proven it to be much more practical and efficient than the one mentioned. The inventor's name is Mr. George C. Baker. He has been engaged in business in Des Moines, Ia., for over fifteen years, and for the past two years in Chicago, and only gave up his business when he found that the success of his invention Puck Tank Fuel Yank Wioatex ay Cake x Die ee My ry; ' £ Cy Mb en ad "Boh YL Mi hs warranted it. For six or seven years he has made experiments in tanks and has studied the effect and forces of water as an amusement rather than with a view to applying his knowledge to anything' so intricate as a sub-marine boat. Over a year ago he decided to have an experimental craft built, and an order was placed with the Detroit Boat Works, Detroit, Mich, F. P. Ballin, N. A., for the hull and driving machinery. The construction of a hull to withstand the pressure at a depth of 80 or 100 feet ' was no easy problem, but it was solved by using three-inch oak plank six inches wide sawed in cylindrical form, so that a num- ber of pieces joined together made a frame, the frames dimin- ishing in size from the center frame being bolted together so as to form the spheroidal hull. 'The longitudinal sections are par- abolic and the cross sections ellipses. This hull was covered with canvas and then longitudinally planked with two- inch plank. The dimensions of the hull are 40 feet over all, 9 feet beam and 14 feet deep, from top of conning tower to bottom of O We sah, UU L, hull being 16.feet. There are five water-tight compartments 2 feet deep between the deck and the ballast hold, but two of them can be used for oil tanks if desired. 'The boat is self-contained and needs no shore connections to drive it. The driving power is in duplicate, an electric plant and a steam plant, the former for running under water and the latter for surface propulsion, the steam plant being so arranged that it can be used to generate electricity for charging the storage batteries. This boat is be- lieved to have the largest storage battery plantin the world. It consists of 236 Woodward cells of 700 ampere hours' capacity, installed by Mr. H. H. Humphrey of Detroit. They are di- vided into two parts and are worked in multiple. The cells are connected with a 50-horse power Jenny motor, which is thrown in gear with the main shaft when it is desired to sink the boat and run under water. The steam plant consists of a 4% by 5% feet Roberts' water tube boiler, which has a patent telescopic stack. This stack is lowered and the stack hole coy- ered when fire is not required. The boiler is fed by a Worthing- ton pump. The 7x7 inch Willard engine can be thrown in gear with the main shaft, and it can also be belted to the motor, which is turned into a dynamo by changing brushes and revers- Woo ¥ Fuct Vonk NY art @ x / 4 YG My Yih yi Ty, V7 te us 47, Vis iy! i pt: ing" he. connections when. it is desired to-re-charge. the storage battery. There is nothing astonishing about this means of propulsion, but the success of the boat lies in the propeller wheels, the ar- rangement, connection and manipulation of which have been patented by the inventor. 'There are two 24-inch propeller wheels, one on either side, connected with one shaft amidships. To the ends of the shaft are attached gear wheels, working in the gear attached to propellers, which are turned in any position by means of a sleeve around the shaft. This sleeve is connected to a handwheel with chain belting. By means of this hand-wheel the propellers may be placed in any position. The propellers are protected by brackets from coming in contact with any ob- struction. The rudder fits close to the hull and the boat an- swers to it readily. It will be understood by the foregoing de- scription that such a boat would have no difficulty in running at the surface, but the following description of a descent will ex-