SECRET OF GERMAN SUBMARINES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 286, 12 May 1915, Page 7

SECRET OF GERMAN SUBMARINES.

STAkJO; .DKSKiXS OF Tllii I'IIUTB . CHAW. ' .SUSAIEItUIiD Olb FUBL Sl-'ITIA" j Sllll'-S. (J'.y Ib-i'liert lUit-sell). <;.«' many was tiie i: 1 -i great n;i',.nl Power' to adopt- the submarine. This i- wiiy she liad -o ei'unpai'ativi'ly lew of these craft compii'l'-i!. oil tile ouU.iX'Lik ot' «ar. On th" other hand, till.--, dely* <4i>vt. lier tile advantage of the rxperienc.'- ul' other .lcitions. ,Sin- ij:<l nev ln-siti l l e .to bog. borrow or sfcil any iiicas. patents !«'■ rights wilich seeiiieij to h'-.v T!i" luimha.-ti'' a.--.;uranc" with, v.-lhcb Hit- J jv'.val a:it::uyiti('-> jji't" tdaiiifd tlu'ir i]i< -ntio:i a:ia ahilitr to l.lorJvadc our t''ade ror.les by submarine-; lias lent an accentuated interest, -to the (piiii'ties of these eraft. What are they like'.' Po they reaily po:.sess au\- un,.-.' 'speeted. features of superiority ? Ah'. ,Simon T.aki has favored me with the story of how it came about that the Uenuans themselves of his •plans and ideas, '.lust about the time, lie brought otii .j >ic well-known Protector P.rapp's tirued out a batch of boats that faded ti act properly. Tney rebuilt tljfin thre. . times, without success. nm'Pk'S T'iil'ACliiillY. Mr. LaV.t- v.:' =-, ask d to go to. Heriin and a.dvi-e ihe Krv.i'p people how to correct, tin :r trou-de--. 'i'he lault with tho.- e early ' .ernianiti subinariues was that w!iil» thvy were ilesigned i'or level keel work, they lur'Ked longitudinal stability, and bad an awkward trick of running head first into the bottom. Mr. hake was able to explain the reason for this and how to overcome it. At that time Admiral llarandon, formerly of the ficrman navy, was at the bead of ibe Krupp Cerma-rua, works. IT? proposed that Mr. Lake should enter into an orient for the construction of I:is hunts fi.r-Riwhi, which, having lost litr Mirfare fleet in the dikpfinese war, was-anxious to cnihl a submarine navy. "Ti." agreoTiient," he writes,- "was nevoi- carried out, as the revolution i-lsrie'V in VUl'-sia, wiiieh cnt.i-ied the K:'.'' ", (ilre'.dors to decide not to build ihe coni.'iupinlod plan there. Put in the nioiiiKirue they had recess to my plans and .-data, even to the nvknt of pa! ents p'-edine. "i'nfiirtunntidy. T hard not taken out many (h-naan patents, and Krupp's attorney informetl me. when it was decided not to go ahead under the liussian agreement, that they should continue to build the T.ake type of boat for Cer.many; and by reference to mv early plans, as submitted to the Lnitod States Xavv Department from time fo time, and the photographs and descriptions of the Cerman boats, every designing engineer and mechanic can readily see that tliey are built upon the Lnlie principle.'-'

Therefore what the Cernian naval authorities have assiduously striven to keep secret, 'Mr Simon Lake is easily able to toll us. Xnr does the treatnvrt he has received at the hands of Krupp's render him any the less inclined to do so. DTYIXO C'iTAMBEPi. While the enemy submarines are all built on the submersible principle —that is, being forced under water 'by deflection rudders, thus overcoming their surplus buoyancy —they descend in a perfectly horizontal poise. The advantage of tiiis is that they are always ready to discharge a torpedo, which is not the ease with a boat tliat dives bows first.

There lias been a great deal of speculation as to how these piratical submarines have contrived to maintain themselves for considerable spells at such Ion;; distances from their home bases. Qlr. Lake quite believes in the existence of submerged oil-fuel supply ships. He further believes that the United States Xavy Department has successfully experimented with such a vessel. But how is fuel to be taken from a .submerged supply ship This is one of the secrets which the Lake Submarine Company can disclose. Their diving chamber, the, plan of which Krupp'a stole, renders this, and other operations of which more directly, perfectly simple. The German submarine-; are provided with big steel bilgc-vheeK which they can drop, and so move along the bottom after the fashion of an aeroplane about to take night. A hermetically-sealed chamber, with a watertight door, is fit-ted-in the fore part of the boat, below the torpedo tube. "A diver, with a safety helmet holding cr.ongh compressed air for half an hour, enters this and shuts himself in. Then, by means oi a hatch, he can drop through on the bed of the sea. Access could be hud to a submerged supply shin in the same manner, and a large number of cms of liquid fuel transferred in a comparatively short space of time.

MINF.-LAYIXO. We have, heard that the Germans intend to lay mines by means of submarine. 'With our genera! knowledge of these craft, as derived from piid".rcs and published descriptions, we have , not taken this threat very seriously. Mr. lake, however, is convinced that, employing the principle of his diving j chamber, the Germans possess submarine* specially designed lor niinesowiug. A comparatively small craft could'carry a large cargo of these infernal which are naturally of a "lloat.v" character. The antidote to the mine-sowing submarines is the mine itself. Such ppves as she Would particularly single nut I'or the work are just the spots whicli shi' might expect to find most heavily protected in this way. When the Hermans sucked the brains of the American submarine inventor they did so with chnr«"teristio thoroughness, due of the features of the Lake type—and of the (.Yrtsinn boats—is a mine - eviiding device. This consists of stout si eel guards and horns projecting to a meeting' 'point considerably beyond the how-, and curving down to within a few inches of the ground, very similarly to the cow-catcher of an American locoj motive.

"Tlic principle fojilnrps of my mine- j <• v:i<liiiu; submarine," writes Mr. Simon } l.ake. "are tlie bottom wlicels :ukl living | inai|iarlmi"it.: lihrh ivjitcrtsfjlifc .snper--tnietrue 11 id 1 is imlisnciisable for lii«li :,j i .'il, aisd lifliii.it urn! righting instruments." f