Submarine
History: Between 1620 and 1624 Cornelius Van Drebel, a Dutch investor, built the first submarine. He successfully maneuvered his craft during repeated trials in the Thames at depth from 12 to 15 ft. beneath the surface. It was during the American War of Independence that a submarine was first used as an offencive weapon in naval warfare. In 1776 the "Turtle", a one-man submarine, built of wood in the shape of a pear and handoperated by a screw propeller, tryed to sink a British man-of-war in New York Harbor. The plan was to have the "Turtle" make its approach to the ship underwarter, attach a charge of gunpowder to the ship's bottom with a screw, and quickly leave the scene before the charge was exploded by a time fuze. After repeated failures to force the screw through the copper sheathing on the hull of "Eagle", the submarine gave up, released the charge, and withdrew. The powder exploded without result, except that the "Eagle" at once decided to shift to a berth farther out to sea. Significant progress in this area had to await two inventions: The internal combustion engine for surface propulsion and the electric motor for underwater propulusion. The all-electric submarine, the "Nautilus", was invented by the two Englishmen; Andrew Campbell and James Ash in 1886. Great interest in submarine warfare was obtained after World War I, mostly because of the great success of the German U-Boats and the lessons of World War II brought great changes in submarine constructions. Torpedoes came to be fired by hydraulic pressure instead of compressed air, eliminating any chance of telltale air bubbles escaping to the surface and betraying the submarine's location. Hulls were given greater strength fir deeper diving and radar and sonar equipments were installed. During World War II, the Germans had conducted extensive experiments on the type XXVI U-boat, named the "Walther boat", driven by a closed system of combustion that could be operated underwarter by employing liquid hydroge peroxide rather than air to supply the oxygen for fuel combustion. The system would permit greater submerged speed by allowing the use of more powerful diesel engines while the submarine was completely submerged. Technical difficulties prevented this type of submarine from becoming operational during the war. After the war the German design was revised and adapted by several navies, culminating in the development of the British "Explore" accepted into service in 1956. In 1955 the USS "Nautilus" made history by getting underway on nuclear power. Here at last was a true submarine. The USS "Nautilus" could maintain submerged speed in excess of 20 knots almost indefinitely, limited only by the endurance of her crew and her supply provisions. During the periode from Aug. 1-5, 1958, the USS "Nautilus" made the first submerged polar transit from Point Barrow, Alaska, to the Greenland Sea, traveling 1,830 miles under the polar ice cap. Submarines are still in use and a new aspect, antisubmarine operations, has been developed.(by Russia) Hint: Large visibility. Specifications:
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