AIR FROM WATER

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 48, Issue 84, 19 January 1928, Page 2

AIR FROM WATER

DUNEDIN MAN’S EXPERIMENT. OF VALUE TO SUBMARINES. > 'Per Press Association.) DUNEDIN, January 18. At three o’clock this afternoon the rabbit which had been sealed up in an empty thirty-six-gallon barrel at three o’clock on the previous Wednesday, in connection with Mr E. Gawne’s demonstration of extracting air from water, was released. It was in excellent condition, and appeared none the worse for its confinement. . Mr Gawne claims that by his invention air can be extracted from water and bo supplied to submarines. If the claim can be substantiated there is no doubt that in the event of a submarine being so disabled that it cannot come to tfie surface members of the crew should not die from lack of fresh air. The water used in the experiment was obtained from the city service, and it had a fair pressure. It was led by a pipe to sL cylinder 2ft 6in high and 10in in diameter. From the cylinder, which contained the mechanism of the invention, two pipes led into the barrel. The bottom one canned fresli air, and the used air escaped from the barrel by tlio top pipe. Turnips and cabbage leaves liad been' placed in the barrel to supply the rabbit with food. , , A fair number of people attended when Mr ■Cfawne unsealed the barrel, and the experiment, so far as it had gone —that was, to keep the rabbit alive for seven days—had proved quite successful. It was agreed by those present that the value, of the invention rested on whether the apparatus could bo installed' in a submarine. Mr Gawne was emphatic that it could, and that by its means air could be extracted from sea water and used by the crews of submarines. He mentioned that the varying pressures met with under the sea would not prevent the apparatus from working just as successfully as it did with water from the city service. Mr Gawne was asked by a “Daily Times” reporter if he intended to patent his invention. He replied that he would ’-'refer to sell it straight out to the British Admiralty. His secret would then be in the possession of the British nation, and of no other country. . What steps are to be taken to bring the invention under the notice of the British Admiralty to test its value in submarine work are not yet made clear. It would certainly appear, however, that something should be done to exploit thoroughly the possibilities of a Dunedin resident’s invention.