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[PSUBS-MAILIST] An early composite submarine with air-independent propulsion
-------- Original Message --------
http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2008/08/submarines-1.html
August 24, 2008
A steam powered submarine: the Ictíneo
Ictineu_i_museu_martim_barcelona_2
<http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2008/08/submarines-1.html#more>
Few Victorian inventions have the grace and charm of the Ictíneo, the
series of two wooden submarines built by Narcís Monturiol i Estarrol in
the second half of the nineteenth century.
Unlike some of the better known early submarines from his contemporaries
in Germany, France and the United States, the Catalan inventor managed
to build submarines that operated flawlessly.
The Ictíneo II was the first combustion engine driven submarine ever,
pioneering concepts that were only rivalled in the 1940s. Sadly, both
submarines were eventually scrapped and Monturiol died penniless and
forgotten.
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*Fish*
Monturiol’s Ictíneo (derived from the Greek words for fish and for ship)
was launched in 1859 in Barcelona harbour to instant success. Monturiol,
who possessed no scientific education, became a local hero. The
submarine, made of olive wood supported with oak rings and sheathed in
two-millimetre thick copper, measured only 23 feet (7 meters) in length
and offered hardly enough space for the captain and the four man crew
who powered the ship by cranking.
Ictineo_ii_harbour_barcelona
<http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2008/08/submarines-1.html#more>
Despite it's low-tech appearance, the Ictíneo was a marvel of
sophisticated technology, decades ahead of its time. The vessel had a
double hull - a spherical inner shell that resisted the water pressure,
and an outer fish-like shell that protected the submarine and was used
for steerage and hydrodynamics.
Between both hulls were four ballast tanks, controlled from within the
cabin by valves letting in water or forcing in air. During driving,
pitch was controlled by a weight which could be moved along a rail. This
micromanagement of buoyancy allowed the Ictíneo to remain at extremely
precise depths - a feat which other submarines at that time could not
achieve.
*Monturiol_portret
<http://krisdedecker.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/08/24/monturiol_portret.jpg>
Lit by a candle*
Monturiol was a man who had safety in mind. Apart from the protective
hull, weights could be dropped immediately to surface quickly in case of
an emergency. The glass ports on the side, the top and the nose were
designed enabling water pressure to push them inside the hull, rendering
leaks virtually impossible.
The interior of the submarine was lit by a candle, using up precious
oxygen although serving as an integral indicator when oxygen began to
run low. Monturiol demonstrated his submarine 59 times, without any
adverse incident. The machine could stay submerged for 2 hours and dive
up to a depth of 20 meters.
*Underwater rowing boat*
Monturiol was not the first to develop a submarine. The Dutchman
Cornelius Jacobszoon Drebbel
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelius_Drebbel> built some remarkable
vessels between 1620 and 1624 based on the unexecuted plans of the 16th
century Englishman William Bourne. Essentially, the vessel was an
underwater rowing boat
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Van_Drebbel.jpg> enclosed by a
leather-covered wooden frame. His final model which had 6 oars, could
carry 16 passengers and stay submerged for 3 hours, travelling 5
kilometres down the Thames at a depth of 5 meters.
The_nautilus
<http://krisdedecker.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/08/22/the_nautilus.jpg>
Robert Fulton <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Fulton>, an American
living in France at the time, designed the successful "Nautilus
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautilus_%281800_submarine%29>", which
began testing in the Seine in 1800 (illustration above). It could stay
submerged for 5 hours by use of compressed air. The German inventor
Wilhem Bauer <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Bauer> launched his
"Brandtaucher <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandtaucher>" in 1850 and
his "Seeteufel
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Bauer#The_Seeteufel_.28.22sea_devil.22.29_submarine>"
in 1856 (both of which sank). The American inventor Horace Hunley
launched "H.L.Hunley <http://www.hunley.org/>", the first submarine to
sink an enemy warship (and the first to sink 3 times itself, killing 25
people) in 1863, a few years later than Monturiol.
*Propulsion*
No matter how state-of-the-art the Ictíneo was compared to her many
<http://my.fit.edu/%7eswood/History_pg2.html> contemporaries, she still
had the same basic drawbacks many submarines at the time possessed: a
limited range as a result of limited air supply, and a very low speed.
All early submarines were propelled by human muscle, which made them
extremely slow.
The Nautilus was equipped with a sail, but could obviously only be used
when sailing on the surface. Underwater, the ship was propelled by a
helical screw, turned by hand. The Ictíneo used pedal power, needing 4
men to reach a speed of 1 mile per hour (about the same speed of the
underwater rowing boat designed 3 centuries earlier). That pace was not
always sufficient to overcome the effect of currents and tides.
Ictineo_submarine_cross_section
<http://krisdedecker.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/08/21/ictineo_submarine_cross_section.jpg>
Ictineo_side
<http://krisdedecker.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/08/21/ictineo_side.jpg>
When the Ictíneo I was crushed by a freighter while docked in the port
of Barcelona, Monturiol decided to design a larger submarine that was
driven by steam. The Ictíneo II, more than twice the length of the
Ictíneo I, was launched between 1864 (with human power) and 1867 (with
steam power). It became the first combustion engine driven submarine in
the world.
The thinking at the time was that it was almost impossible to run a
steam engine underwater because it would use up all the oxygen and
convert the inside of the ship into an oven. To overcome this, Monturiol
invented a chemical furnace based on a reaction between potassium
chlorate, zinc and manganese dioxide - a process that produced enough
heat to boil water to run the steam engine. To complement this
ingenuity, the reaction gave off oxygen as a by-product.
*Rudder_ictineo
<http://krisdedecker.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/08/22/rudder_ictineo.gif>
Snorkel*
Monturiol had successfully resolved the two basic obstacles presented to
submarine inventors: air supply and mechanical power. In fact, he
devised an early form of anaerobic (air-independent) propulsion
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air-independent_propulsion> only to be
repeated in the 1940s with the Walter turbine in Germany, and finally
with the first atomic submarine, the USS Nautilus.
The Ictíneo II was the first of its kind providing its own oxygen,
without surfacing regularly or using a snorkel, as seen on the Nautilus.
Perplexing is the reality that Monturiol, never having patented his
ideas, is absent
<http://inventors.about.com/od/sstartinventions/a/Submarines.htm> in
many <http://perso.wanadoo.es/pfcurto/anteced.html> maritime records of
the progression of submarines.
On account of all the machinery in the vessel, only 2 men could fit in
the submarine originally designed for a crew of 20. The Ictíneo II made
almost 20 problem free demonstration drives. It could stay submerged for
eight hours and plunge to a depth of 50 meters. Monturiol calculated
that the maximum possible depth was 500 meters, but chose not to take
the risk of diving to this depth.
In 1868, shortly after its launch, the groundbreaking Ictíneo II was
seized by the shipyard and scrapped, together with her predecessor. The
reason? Monturiol could not pay the bills.
*Coral divers*
While his competitors devised submarines for military purposes,
Monturiol had alternative ambitions. The man was a communist, a
revolutionary and a utopian who regarded his invention as a way of
improving the life of the working class. He once witnessed the drowning
of a coral diver in the coastal village of Cadaqués and he thought his
submarine would make coral diving a much safer endeavour. The Ictíneo II
was equipped with arms to retrieve objects from the sea floor. According
to other sources, Monturiol regarded the submarine as a tool for
exploring the underworld of the deep sea and as a passenger
transportation device.
Monturiol_submarine
<http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2008/08/submarines-1.html#more>
When his search for independant funding proved unsuccessful, Monturiol
attempted to sell his invention to the military. He mounted a cannon
onto the Ictíneo II in a last effort to attract investment from Madrid,
but the Spanish monarchy regarded the wooden fish with apprehension and
was not prepared to invest any money into it. In other countries at the
time, military factions saw little potential in submarines - their use
went against their understood etiquette of war in those times.
*Americans*
Monturiol also tried to sell his invention to the American Navy after he
read about the Civil War and their attempts to make submarines, but
unfortunately for him, the war was over before a decision could be made.
Ironically, only 30 years later, the Spanish fleet was annihilated by
America in the dispute over Cuba, and with it Spain lost the final
remnants of its 400 year old world empire. The Spanish vessels were
infinitely inferior to their American enemy. Speculatively, an army of
submarines may have been able to change the course of history.
*Replica's*
Replica's of both submarines are on display in Barcelona: the Ictíneo I
in the garden of the Maritime Museum and the Ictíneo II in the harbour
(both pictured above).
Info & pictures : 1 <http://scalemodel.net/Gallery/IctineoII.aspx> / 2
<http://mateengreenway.com/steampunk/IctineoPlanos.gif> / 3
<http://gallery.drydockmodels.com/album345?page=1> / 4
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679743839?ie=UTF8&tag=lowtemagaz-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0679743839>
/ 5
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375414398?ie=UTF8&tag=lowtemagaz-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0375414398>
/ 6 <http://www.ub.es/geocrit/sn/sn119-96.htm> / 7
<http://www.navy.mil/navydata/cno/n87/usw/issue_26/monturiol.html> / 8
<http://www.ub.es/geocrit/sn/sn119-96.htm> / 9
<http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:pbEznT4Oyv8J:www.ma1.upc.edu/recerca/reportsre/02/rep0205puig.doc+A+Spanish+project+for+submarine+navigation:&hl=nl&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=firefox-a>
/ 10
<https://upcommons.upc.edu/revistes/bitstream/2099/1984/1/RECENSIO4.pdf>
© Kris De Decker (edited by Shameez Joubert)
Comments (2)
<http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2008/08/submarines-1.html#comments>
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Ictineo_plans
<http://krisdedecker.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/08/21/ictineo_plans.gif>
*Update :*
Omer <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omer_%28submarine%29>
A human powered submarine
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omer_%28submarine%29> built in 2007. It
reaches a speed of 15 km/h or 9mph.
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