THE KNELL OF THE IRONCLADS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2105, 22 November 1880, Page 2

THE KNELL OF THE IRONCLADS.

A -writer in the “United Service Magazine,” disbursing Mr Fleurs' device for breathing under water, says :—“ The apparatus having been fastened over the nose and mouth of the diver, when he wishes to breath the air out of bis lungs he does so in the ordinary way, and it goes dawn the tubes into the bottom of the front filter. It then filters through the causticcharged sponge in front, and passing along an outlet at the top, is conducted over the diver’s shoulder into the other case, through which it filters in the same way, and then ascending into the helmet, mixes with the oxygen that has to be let in from its store chamber, and is ready to be breathed again into the diver’s lungs. Mr Pleuss states that if he could only eat under water he could remain there a whole day, as it is he walked for a quarter of a mile under the sea at Hyde, and when at Brighton he went down during stormy weather into five fathoms of water ; and so, if so much can be accomplished, we think that before long Mr Day’s long-lost invention will be re-discovered,, and then the days of the ironclads will be numbered, as beats which could move about under water would easily be made serviceable in torpedo warfare —a warfare, even now, which threatens the existence of the huge, unwieldy metal monsters that cost so much money, and have done so little to keep up their character, either for strength or utility. It appears to us that if caustic soda in solution were plentifully supplied, as well as fresh ozygen, into an air-tight chamber, people might breathe as freely there as in the open air ; and should this prove to be the case, a submarine shipgcould be speedily-constructed, having engines to propel it in any direction, the motive power of which might be compressed air. A vessel of that description could either be a torpedo-boat or a ram, or be both j and as the armour does not go below the waterline, a vulnerable part in the strongest ship could always be reached. They might certainly have submarine ships to act as sentinels over the ironclads, when, of course, there would be battles under water ; or strong e'ectrio lights might be sunk fathoms deep, so that a vessel that moved under water could not approach without being seen. Still, taking all these into consideration, we cannot help fancying that Mr Elenas’ invention has sounded the knell of the ironclads.