RE: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Simon Lake

Mike, What about using pine and pitch and wood dowls and dove tail it together? I could send out my trusty shop dog to hold the other end for ya. I've been gearing up to make a historically correct birch bark canoe and they have a couple of ways of mixing pitch with ashes and other things to get the result they want. Of course with that method the pitch runs in the summer heat and wants to crack in the winter. I would guess that Simon used some sort of petroleum type roofing tar, but I'll let you tell me. Brent

From: Michael Holt <mholt@ohiohills.com>
Reply-To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Simon Lake
Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2007 19:13:53 -0400

Jay K. Jeffries wrote:

Thank you for your prompt reply. I to agree that important or historical documents should be duplicated and stored at an alternate, safe site. Unfortunately, Jeff doesn?t have a curatorial background, is severely underfunded, and now is experiencing ill health with age. He took on the burden of keeping the Lake materials after no one in the immediate family took interest. The archives are kept in the first floor of his house which is a short distance across the road to the Inland Waterway just south of Melbourne, FL (hurricane alley lately) and have suffered accordingly. This was my fear when first visiting the site in the early 90s. The materials are in disarray and not accessioned. It is my impression that he feels that there is great financial value in the materials and is rather guarded when discussing the matter of others assistance. I will re-evaluate this opinion after my visit in late April and let you know.
I have talked with Jeff Lake a few times about organizing his collection. He was never interested in my input. I am a history student, and I thought I might combine the MA process with a personal interest in Simon Lake's work. I have part of my thesis written, on the construction of Argonaut Junior. I was and am willing to go to him to organize the collection, but I fear he doesn't trust me.

<>Simon Lake grew up in South Jersey just outside of Atlantic City in a town called Pleasantville. It is my belief that a formal museum could be located there and would be eligible for funding from the casinos as well as the State, and Federal governments due to the area being financially repressed. There is a local state college that could provide interns as part of their history program. I have considered forming a non-profit corporation to promote this idea. Hopefully Jeff can be convinced to support the plan as there is no one in his surrounding family interested in maintaining the Lake historical records.
That's a perfect idea.

<> <>Jeff and his sister, Melissa have previously attempted to develop interest in a Lake documentary but have not been able to come up with a great enough ?hook? to justify funding.
After Jeff asked for ideas, I wrote a "treatment" for a Disneyesque Simon Lake movie. Never heard from Jeff about that, after I sent it to him. I should ask him to send me a copy of it. (All I wanted out of the movie was "Story By" credit!)

I have toyed with building 3-D models of the Explorer, Argonaut and the Argonaut II in Rhino which then could easily be transformed into solid models, whether as ½ ship models or of 3-D resin. There are not many photographs of the subs and those that are available are of poor quality. Guessing that the average man was probably 5 ½ feet in stature at the turn of the century, the images could be roughly scaled to develop plans from?these would just be lacking in detail.
I've sketched out the hull for duplication in plywood. It can be done. All I need is someone to hold the other end of the sheets. Anyone near Richmond VA and interested? I have the numbers and the basic idea worked out in detail.

M