AIR FROM WATER

Hokitika Guardian, 20 January 1928, Page 1

AIR FROM WATER

DUNEDIN RESIDENT'S EXPERIMENT.

CLAIMED TO BE OF VALUE FOI SUBMARINES.

DUNEDIN, Jan. 18. .At three o’clock this afternoon the rabbit which had been scaled up in an empty thirty-six gallon barrel at three o’clock on the previous Wednesday, in connection with Air E. Gnwnc’s demonstration of extracting air from water, was released. It was in excellent condition and appeared none the worse for its confinement.

AL Gawnc claims that by bis invention air can be extracted from water and supplied to submarines. If the claim can be substantiated there is 710 doubt that in the event of a submarine being so disabled that it cannot come to the surface mem tiers of the crew should not die from lack of fresh

The water used in the experiment was obtained from the city service, ■and it bad a fair pressure. It was led by a pi[K> to a cylinder 2ft. Cin. high and lOin. in diameter. From the cylinder, which contained the mechanism of tho invention, two pipes led into the barrel. The bottom one carried fresh air, and the used air escaped from tho barrel bv the top pipe. Turnips and cabbage leaves bad been placed in ihe barrel to supply the rabbit with food. A fair number of people attended when Mr Gawnc unsealed the barrel, .and the experiment, so far as it had gone— that was, to keep the rabbit alive for seven days—bad proved quite sucess Ini. It was agreed by those present that the value of the invention rested on whether the apparatus could be installed in a submarine. Mr Gawnc was emphatic that it. could, and that by its means air could ho extracted from sea water and used by the crews of submarines. He mentioned that the varying pressures met with under the sea would not prevent the apparatus from working just as successfully as it did with water from the city service. Mr (Jawne was asked by a “Daily Times’’ reporter if he intended to patent his invention. Ho replied that he would prefer to sell it straight out to the British Admiralty. His secret would then be in the possession of (he Bi'itsh nation, and of no other country.

What steps are to he taken to bring the invention under the notice of the British Admiralty to test its value in submarine work are not yet made clear. It would certainly appear, however, that something should he done to exploit thoroughly the possibilities of a Dunedin resident’s invention.