Submarine History
Mon, Oct 19th 2009, 10:17
Submarine History stretches back surprisingly far. The first navigable submarine was submerged in London in 1624 spending 3 hours under water.
Submarine history credits Dutch inventor, Cornelius Drebbel, as the father of submarines as he was the first person to successfully build one. The idea was not new, Leonardo da Vinci made sketches of a submarine structure back in the 1400s, as did British mathematician William Bourne in 1578.
Drebbel was working for the British Navy when he managed to manufacture his first submarine which was a wooden frame covered in leather. He built another two, the third of which was demonstrated to King James I in the famous 3 hour trip 4 metres below the River Thames. This model was larger than the first two, carried 16 passengers and had 6 oars for steering. He also invented a method to generate oxygen inside - by heating nitrite in a metal pan.
Drebbel's submarine never caught on and it was only in 1776 when a one-man egg shaped wooden submarine was built in the United States during the American Revolution. This submarine was built by David Bushnell and was powered by propellers turned by the driver. This was the first time that screws were used to propel a submarine. Nicknamed "Turtle", this submarine was used against British warships during the war
Other milestones in submarine history:
1863 - first submarine independently powered, not relying on human propultion - The French "Plongeur"
1914-1918 - military submarines like the German U-boats played a significant role in wartime for the first time
1960 - American nuclear powered submarine USS Triton makes the first submerged circumnavigation of the earth
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