OPENING THE DEEP

Evening Star, Issue 20592, 18 September 1930, Page 9

OPENING THE DEEP

NEW APPARATUS REACHES GREAT DEPTHS An apparatus withstanding water pressure at greater depths than man has previously attained is reported from Zagreb. It is the invention-of a young Croatian engineer, Josip Pongratz, from Ozok, a prosperous town in the vicinity of the Hungarian border, says the ‘New York Times.’ Tests already made have shown its usefulness. The inventor has named it “ an apparatus for examining the bottom of tho sea.” M. Pongratz has . been working on his invention some eight years, and ho has constructed it so that six people may enter it and be lowered to great depths and study the sea floor of Us life without any inconvenience. Tho apparatus is fitted with very strong redactors, so that it is possible to see objects at great distances from inside tho apparatus. Drawing and photography are also possible. Tiie same device which enables tho apparatus to withstand groat pressure could also servo as a means of locomotion, according to the inventor. This is a series of rubber shields which admit air and water at one side of the craft and expel it at the other. A submarine, so constructed, he points out, would operate without fuel by water pressure. It could reach depths where mines and torpedoes aro ineffective. Finally, the fact that the craft makes its own air gives it a much greater submerged cruiser radius than any submarine yet built. Trials have been made in Hamburg, Germany. Two dogs were placed in the apparatus, lowered into tno sea, and kept there for twelve hours. When they were taken out it was found they had suffered no ill-effects, and that the air was almost as good as it was before the apparatus ivas lowered. Tho secret of the distillation of the air lies in the rubber shields of tho apparatus. These also make it possible for the apparatus to withstand great pressures. The texture of the rubber shields is such that nothing can damage the craft. A test of the resistant qualities of the rubber was made by setting off an explosive under the apparatus. Tho explosion did no damage. An English firm now constructing large shipbuilding yards at the Jugoslav port of ICrapjevica, in tho vicinity of Sushak, have become interested in this invention, and wish to build a boat according to the principles of Mr Pongratz and under his direction. Tho Jugo Slav War Ministry, with its Navy Department, has also asked Air Pongratz to forward his plans to tho Ministry, as they will probably make tests in their own yards.