THE NORTH POLE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 269, 24 June 1880, Page 2

THE NORTH POLE.

Another proposal to reach the North Pole has been made by a Belgium gentleman, M. Palmarts, who proposes for the purpose a submarine vessel. The ship which he has designed for this pur pos3 leirs some resemblance to the the Cleopatra, in which the Obelisk was brought frem Alexandria to tha Thames It is to consist of| a sheet iron ■cylinder, 22 feet long by eight in diameter, closed by a hemisphere| at its.atern and by a cone nt its stem, so that the total length would be a little more than 30 feet

The crew is to consist of three men and the whole craft, when loaded, is to be of a specific gravity a little less than that of water, so that it may be made, to sink at pleasure by the admission of the water into chambers contrived for the purpose, and will rise as soon as the water is expelled. The respiration of the crew is to be provided for by constant ly supplying the contained atmosphere with fresh oxygen, obtained by the de composition of water by galvanic current and by fixing the expired carbonic acid by means of caustic potash. M. Pal marts proposes to propel his submarine vessel by an electro magnetic apparatus: and in a pamphlet recently published at Bruss'els, he has worked tut hit plans in considerable detail. If the attempt should ever"be seriously made, perhaps t e most formidable difficulty after all might arise from the discovery cf a thick frozen surface at the Pole itself, so thot the explorers would be unable to rise through the ice to survey the lncalitjymd woull be compelled to return unsatisfi.-d by Ihe track th..t took them thitli -r. It ( is impossible not to feel some regret that the lives (f men should be I az rd> d for the mere change r>f attnininur a doubt fill advantage, but this consideration- has never yet had force enough to stem the current of adventure, and while England holds her r lace among nations it n<?vi r will probably.