David Bushnell invented the first viable military submarine verified to be self-contained and self-navigable, though John P. Holland invented the basis for the modern submarine in 1896. William Bourne and John Napier are the ones confirmed to have conceived of the submarine. Cornelius Drebbel built something that was hardly a real submarine propelled by OARS in 1620. Nathaniel Symons came up with the idea of ballast tanks in 1747.
In 1854, Frenchman Hippolyte Marie-Davey invented the first naval periscope, which was a sight tube made of two mirrors at 45-degree angles. In the 1880s, other periscopes were created, but these designs, including Marie-Davey’s, were still primitive in development and not entirely useful.
Thomas H. Doughty of the United States Navy invented a prismatic periscope, which was used in the American Civil War. In 1902, Simon Lake, a submarine engineer, created a more effective, collapsible omniscope with eight prisms for all-around, rotating viewpoints. This was helpful for viewing the water while the submarine moved at a lower speed. Improvements to Lake’s omniscope included a double tube, so that it could withstand more pressure and speed.
Sir Howard Grubb, a designer of astronomical instruments, developed the modern periscope that was first used in Holland-designed British Royal Navy submarines. For more than 50 years, the periscope was the submarine’s only visual aid until underwater television was installed aboard the nuclear-powered submarine USS Nautilus.
Thomas Grubb (1800-1878) founded a telescope-making firm in Dublin. Sir Howard Grubb’s father was noted for inventing and constructing machinery for printing. In the early 1830s, he made an observatory for his own use equipped with a 9-inch (23cm) telescope. Thomas Grubb’s youngest son Howard (1844-1931) joined the firm in 1865, under his hand the company gained a reputation for the first-class Grubb telescopes. During the First World War, demand was on Grubb’s factory to make gunsights and periscopes for the war effort and it was during those years that Grubb perfected the periscope’s design.
The records of Leonardo da Vinci have survived to our time, on which you can clearly make out the prototype of the submarine. But there is very little information about it. Most likely, on the surface, the ship could move using sails. Under water, the ship had to move with the help of oar power.
To defeat enemy ships, da Vinci designed a special underwater mine. According to the inventor’s plan, saboteurs or a submarine could deliver such a mine to the side of an enemy ship. This idea was first realized only in the second half of the 19th century, during the American Civil War.
Historical accounts point out that man has always sought to explore the ocean depths. An early record from the Nile Valley in Egypt gives us the first illustration. It is a wall painting that shows duck hunters, bird spears in hand, creeping up to their prey beneath the surface as they breathe through hollow papyrus reeds. The Athenians are said to have used divers to clear the harbor entrance during the siege of Syracuse.
And Alexander the Great, in his operations against Tyre, ordered divers to destroy any submersible vehicle (submarine) defenses the city might undertake to build. While in none of these records does it actually say that Alexander had any kind of submersible vehicle, legend has it that he descended in a device that kept its occupants dry and admitted light.
Not until 1578 did any record appear of a craft designed for underwater navigation. William Bourne, a former Royal Navy gunner, designed a completely enclosed boat that could be submerged and rowed beneath the surface. His creation was a wooden framework bound in waterproofed leather. It was to be submerged by using hand vises to contract the sides and decrease the volume.
Although Bourne’s idea never got beyond the drawing board, a similar apparatus was launched in 1605. But it didn’t get much farther because the designers had neglected to consider the tenacity of underwater mud. The craft became stuck in the river bottom during its first underwater trial.
What might be called the first “practical” submarine was a rowboat covered with greased leather. It was the idea of Cornelius Van Drebbel, a Dutch doctor living in England, in 1620. Van Drebbel’s submarine was powered by rowers pulling on oars that protruded through flexible leather seals in the hull. Snorkel air tubes were held above the surface by floats, thus permitting a submergence time of several hours. Van Drebbel’s submarine successfully maneuvered at depths of 12 to 15 feet below the surface of the Thames River.
Van Drebbel followed his first boat with two others. The later models were larger but they relied upon the same principles. Legend has it that after repeated tests, King James I of England rode in one of his later models to demonstrate its safety. Despite its successful demonstrations, Van Drebbel’s invention failed to arouse the interest of the British Navy. It was an age when the possibility of submarine warfare was still far in the future.
In 1749 the British periodical “Gentlemen’s Magazine” printed a short article describing a most unusual device for submerging and surfacing. Reproducing an Italian scheme developed by Giovanni Borelli in 1680, the article depicted a craft with a number of goatskins built into the hull. Each goatskin was to be connected to an aperture at the bottom. Borelli planned to submerge this vessel by filling the skins with water and to surface it by forcing the water out with a twisting rod. Even though Borelli’s submarine was never built it provided what was probably the first approach to the modern ballast tank.
The first American submarine is as old as the United States itself. David Bushnell (1742-1824), a Yale graduate, designed and built a submarine torpedo boat in 1776. The one-man vessel submerged by admitting water into the hull and surfaced by pumping it out with a hand pump. Powered by a pedal-operated propeller and armed with a keg of powder, the egg-shaped Turtle gave Revolutionary Americans high hopes for a secret weapon – a weapon that could destroy the British warships anchored in New York Harbor.
Templo S.U.D. almost 3 years ago
um…
monkeysky almost 3 years ago
I missed the periscope at first, and thought this was just a completely serious tribute to Drebbel.
KenseidenXL almost 3 years ago
David Bushnell invented the first viable military submarine verified to be self-contained and self-navigable, though John P. Holland invented the basis for the modern submarine in 1896. William Bourne and John Napier are the ones confirmed to have conceived of the submarine. Cornelius Drebbel built something that was hardly a real submarine propelled by OARS in 1620. Nathaniel Symons came up with the idea of ballast tanks in 1747.
pcolli almost 3 years ago
If that periscope was a bit closer….. OUCH!!!
Qiset almost 3 years ago
He started a business making submarines but it went under.
jagedlo almost 3 years ago
For those who were wondering…https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelis_Drebbel
StephenHoyt almost 3 years ago
Actually is was the Confedrite states of America during the civil war it was the CSS Hunley
trainnut1956 almost 3 years ago
I didn’t see the periscope at first. That’s funny.
trainnut1956 almost 3 years ago
I wonder what would happen if Lio visits the grave of the man who invented the bra?
rshive almost 3 years ago
Looks like the submarine has become sub-terrestrial.
RonnieAThompson Premium Member almost 3 years ago
stamps almost 3 years ago
Arm the torpedoes!
briangj2 almost 3 years ago
In 1854, Frenchman Hippolyte Marie-Davey invented the first naval periscope, which was a sight tube made of two mirrors at 45-degree angles. In the 1880s, other periscopes were created, but these designs, including Marie-Davey’s, were still primitive in development and not entirely useful.
Thomas H. Doughty of the United States Navy invented a prismatic periscope, which was used in the American Civil War. In 1902, Simon Lake, a submarine engineer, created a more effective, collapsible omniscope with eight prisms for all-around, rotating viewpoints. This was helpful for viewing the water while the submarine moved at a lower speed. Improvements to Lake’s omniscope included a double tube, so that it could withstand more pressure and speed.
https://www.reference.com/history/invented-periscope-1853bc18b3dcf581
Sir Howard Grubb, a designer of astronomical instruments, developed the modern periscope that was first used in Holland-designed British Royal Navy submarines. For more than 50 years, the periscope was the submarine’s only visual aid until underwater television was installed aboard the nuclear-powered submarine USS Nautilus.
Thomas Grubb (1800-1878) founded a telescope-making firm in Dublin. Sir Howard Grubb’s father was noted for inventing and constructing machinery for printing. In the early 1830s, he made an observatory for his own use equipped with a 9-inch (23cm) telescope. Thomas Grubb’s youngest son Howard (1844-1931) joined the firm in 1865, under his hand the company gained a reputation for the first-class Grubb telescopes. During the First World War, demand was on Grubb’s factory to make gunsights and periscopes for the war effort and it was during those years that Grubb perfected the periscope’s design.
https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-the-periscope-4072717
briangj2 almost 3 years ago
The records of Leonardo da Vinci have survived to our time, on which you can clearly make out the prototype of the submarine. But there is very little information about it. Most likely, on the surface, the ship could move using sails. Under water, the ship had to move with the help of oar power.
To defeat enemy ships, da Vinci designed a special underwater mine. According to the inventor’s plan, saboteurs or a submarine could deliver such a mine to the side of an enemy ship. This idea was first realized only in the second half of the 19th century, during the American Civil War.
https://futurenow.com.ua/en/famous-inventions-of-leonardo-da-vinci-helicopter-tank/
Historical accounts point out that man has always sought to explore the ocean depths. An early record from the Nile Valley in Egypt gives us the first illustration. It is a wall painting that shows duck hunters, bird spears in hand, creeping up to their prey beneath the surface as they breathe through hollow papyrus reeds. The Athenians are said to have used divers to clear the harbor entrance during the siege of Syracuse.
And Alexander the Great, in his operations against Tyre, ordered divers to destroy any submersible vehicle (submarine) defenses the city might undertake to build. While in none of these records does it actually say that Alexander had any kind of submersible vehicle, legend has it that he descended in a device that kept its occupants dry and admitted light.
(To be continued)
briangj2 almost 3 years ago
(Continued)
Not until 1578 did any record appear of a craft designed for underwater navigation. William Bourne, a former Royal Navy gunner, designed a completely enclosed boat that could be submerged and rowed beneath the surface. His creation was a wooden framework bound in waterproofed leather. It was to be submerged by using hand vises to contract the sides and decrease the volume.
Although Bourne’s idea never got beyond the drawing board, a similar apparatus was launched in 1605. But it didn’t get much farther because the designers had neglected to consider the tenacity of underwater mud. The craft became stuck in the river bottom during its first underwater trial.
What might be called the first “practical” submarine was a rowboat covered with greased leather. It was the idea of Cornelius Van Drebbel, a Dutch doctor living in England, in 1620. Van Drebbel’s submarine was powered by rowers pulling on oars that protruded through flexible leather seals in the hull. Snorkel air tubes were held above the surface by floats, thus permitting a submergence time of several hours. Van Drebbel’s submarine successfully maneuvered at depths of 12 to 15 feet below the surface of the Thames River.
Van Drebbel followed his first boat with two others. The later models were larger but they relied upon the same principles. Legend has it that after repeated tests, King James I of England rode in one of his later models to demonstrate its safety. Despite its successful demonstrations, Van Drebbel’s invention failed to arouse the interest of the British Navy. It was an age when the possibility of submarine warfare was still far in the future.
(To be concluded)
briangj2 almost 3 years ago
(Concluded)
In 1749 the British periodical “Gentlemen’s Magazine” printed a short article describing a most unusual device for submerging and surfacing. Reproducing an Italian scheme developed by Giovanni Borelli in 1680, the article depicted a craft with a number of goatskins built into the hull. Each goatskin was to be connected to an aperture at the bottom. Borelli planned to submerge this vessel by filling the skins with water and to surface it by forcing the water out with a twisting rod. Even though Borelli’s submarine was never built it provided what was probably the first approach to the modern ballast tank.
The first American submarine is as old as the United States itself. David Bushnell (1742-1824), a Yale graduate, designed and built a submarine torpedo boat in 1776. The one-man vessel submerged by admitting water into the hull and surfaced by pumping it out with a hand pump. Powered by a pedal-operated propeller and armed with a keg of powder, the egg-shaped Turtle gave Revolutionary Americans high hopes for a secret weapon – a weapon that could destroy the British warships anchored in New York Harbor.
https://www.thoughtco.com/submarines-history-1992416
spaced man spliff almost 3 years ago
In the town, where I was born….
Durak Premium Member almost 3 years ago
Any idea why Lio is so devoted to the memory of the inventor of the submarine?
finnygirl Premium Member almost 3 years ago
Peekaboo!
dylanliran about 1 year ago
that is just freaky