TO SAVE SUBMARINES

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 256, 19 January 1928, Page 1

TO SAVE SUBMARINES

Dunedin Man’s Invention EXTRACTING AIR FROM WATER A Successful Experiment Press Association. *

DUNEDIN, Wednesday. AT 3 o’clock this afternoon: a rabbit which had been sealed up in an empty 36-gallon barrel at 3 o’clock on the previous Wednesday in connection with Mr. E. Gawne’s demonstration of extracting air from water was released. It was in excellent condition and appeared none the worse for its confinement.

As was explained in the Otago “Daily Times” of Thursday last, Mr. Gawne claims that by his invention air can be extracted from water and be supplied to submarines. If the claim can be substantiated there is no doubt that in the event of a submarine being so disabled that it cannot come to the surface, members of the crew should not die from lack of fresh air. The water used in the experiment was obtained from the city service and it had a fair pressure. It was led by a pipe to a cylinder 2ft 6in in height and lOin in diameter. From the cylinder which contained the mechanism of the invention, two pipes led into the barrel. The bottom one carried fresh air and the used air escaped from the barrel by the top pipe. Turnips and cabbage leaves had been placed in the barrel to supply the rabbit with food. A fair number of people were present when Mr. Gawne unsealed the barrel and the experiment, which so far as it had gone was to keep the

rabbit alive for seven days, bad proved quite successful. , It was agreed by those present that the value of the invention rested on whether the apparatus could be installed in a submarine. Mr. Gawne was emphatic that it could, and that by its means air could be extracted from sea water and used by 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. Gawne was asked by a reporter if he intended to patent his invention. He replied that he would prefer to sell it straight out to the British Ad- ' miralty. His secret would then be in possession of the British nation and of no other country. What steps are to be 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 be done to exploit ' thoroughly the possibilities of the Dunedin resident's invention.