Ice-Melting Device For Antarctic Tests

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29383, 9 December 1960, Page 16

Ice-Melting Device For Antarctic Tests

Ice-melting equipment which may alter the entire pattern of American Antarctic supply operations and save millions of pounds to shipping in ice-bound areas throughout the world, will be tested in McMurdo Sound within a few’ weeks.

The representatives of three American companies involved in the manufacture of the new device are at present in Christchurch waiting to take about seven tons of electrical gear south in the icebreaker Edisto.

The men are Mr G. E. Gross, president of Future Products Research, Ltd., the firm responsible for developing and testing the device, Mr K. A. Hill, chief design engineer, of the Besly-Welles Company, which designed and manufactured the equipment, Mr W. A. Garvey, an electrical engineer with the Franklin Electric Company, which is supplying the submersible electric motors for the job, Mr J. Thome, a diver and representative of Adventure, Incorporated, a subsidiary of Future Products Research, and Mr D. H. Johnstone, who. with Mr Thorne, will dive to install the equipment.

the biggest problems. In frigid waters, such as in McMurdo Sound, it had been estimated that in one immersion of about an hour a diver could lose 71b. An enormous number of calories were used to keep the body warm, said Mr Thorne. “Thirty minutes in the water is about as long as anybody can stand.” In his experience of diving in icy waters in the lakes of the Canadian mid-west he had known clivers to suffer severely on coming out of the water. "Thawing out is a painful process. I have seen men screaming with pain from the intense cold. Many men have also suffered frostbite,” he said. To compensate for the loss of calories in the Antarctic, Mr Thorne and the party will take in more than 5000 calories daily—about one and a half times the amount eaten by a normal outdoor worker.

The story of under-water manipulation is largely the story of a group of Chicago researchers, with Mr Gross playing a leading part. He had wartime experience with rockets, explosives and fuses, then was safety. engineer for research weapons testing, and in his spare time was an inventor of gadgets. With Mr Garvey and the other company representatives, Mr Gross yesterday explained the melting device and said that if it was successful it could double the amount of supplies which could be taken to the Antarctic by ship. Because sole rights to the equipment could bring considerable profits to the manufacturing companies, they could not give specific details of the melting process, the members of the party said. ”It depends on erosion and time principles for the controlled melting and keeping ice-free of specific areas of water.” they said. Tests in Canada Testing had been carried out in many parts of Canada for the last three years and some small installations were now in use on areas of the St. Lawrence seaway. Fairly large areas had been kept free of ice after thawing from between 30 to 50 inches. The seven tons of equipment to be taken to the Antarctic include mobile generating units and submersible electric motors of iip to 10 horsepower. , One of the big advantages of ♦he melting svstem is that the ice can be melted from a specified and defined area leaving a solid face of ice into which shins can berth and unload as they do at a normal wharf Tn the Antarctic, (laid Mr Garvey. the operating time for ships could conceivably he extended six weeks earlier and six weeks later, thus doubling the available time in which ships could enter McMurdo Sound. Turning places for ships would be melted and the solid ice face would allow much better and safer unloading than at present, he said. Air temperature, the saline content of the water, the ice thickness and other variables could alter the success of the melting svstem. said Mr Garvey Experiments in the mid-west of Canada had been carried out with success on duck nonds cattle drinking nonds. and in some large lakes Diving Hazards Wearing a special cold-weather diving suit. Mr Thorne will photograph the results of the process. Killer whales, and exhaustion in the extreme temperatures will be the greatest hazards of diving in the freezing waters, said Mr Thorne yesterday. “We will be cautious; but we will be taking a calculated risk.” His protection against the cold will be from a constant-volume diving suit, designed for underwater salvage work in Canada. “It is the only suit in the world that will work in Antarctic temperatures,” he said. Two sets of waffle-weave underwear will be worn under the rubber and fabric suit. Rubber gauntlets will clamp tightly round the wrists Explosive charges will be used to disperse killer whales if they are in the area. “It will certainly frighten them for a while and should give me enough time to get into the water and out again before the whaler come back. If we can’t get rid of them I win not dive. They are ferocious things,” said Mr Thorne. He will wear safety lines in the water. He will be weighed more than normally because photography belpw the ice in poor light win be difficult unless he is fairly stationary. “There is 1500 ft to 3000 ft between the ice and the sea bed and because I will be carrying extra weights, extra safety precautions are needed,” he said. Exhaustion would be one of

Although . Mr Thorne has been diving for about 12 years, most of his work has been in the tropics. His experience of coldwater diving has been mainly confined to photographic work similar to what he will be doing in the Antarctic. Three years of testing have been carried out with the ice-melting equipment in ice-bound areas of Canada and he has already done a considerable amount of diving to photograph the effects of the device.