NOVEL METHOD OF RAISING SUNKEN VESSELS.

Kumara Times, Issue 996, 9 December 1879, Page 3

NOVEL METHOD OF RAISING SUNKEN VESSELS.

In the Plotzen Lake, which, is not far from Berlin, and the depth of which is very considerable, reaching in some parts to twenty-eight metres, an interesting attempt lias been made to raise sunken vessels. The method, which is the invention of Tlerr Eidner, a Vienna civil engineer, consists in applying carbonic acid in the following manner :—ln an empty baloon a bottle half filled with sulphuric acid, surrounded with Bullrich's salt is fixed ; the bottle is destroyed by turning a screw, and the two substances mix and produce carbonic acid, which tills the balloon. It is obvious that when this apparatus is brought into operation in the hull of a sunken ship, the effect must be, if a sufficient number of balloons filled to raise the vessel. In the experiments on the Plotzen Lake, a small vessel or boat weighing several hundredweight was first sunk. A diver then went down with the necessary apparatus, which he set in operation in the interior of the ship. Hardly had he done so before the vessel began to rise to the surface, where it was maintained by the balloon. In a second experiment five heavy sscks filled with sand were thrown overboard in a part of the lake which was sixteen metres deep. The diver decended, fastened all the sacks together, and fixing the balloon apparatus to them, set it going, with the effect that the whole of the sacks were brought up to the surface.