FIGHTING THE WAVES WITH AIR
However, there has been another recent development which may have a very important bearing on this problem of deep-sea salvage work. It has often been observed that a submerged reef, twenty or thirty feet below the surface, may act as a breakwater to stop the storming waves. An inventor who studied this phenomenon arrived at the theory that the reefs set up eddies in the water which break up the rhythm of the waves and convert them into a smother of foam just above the reef. Thereupon he conceived the idea of performing the same work by means of compressed air. He laid a pipe on the sea bottom, forty or fifty feet below the surface, and pumped air through it. Just as he had expected, the line of air bubbles produced exactly the same effect as the submerged reef. They set up a vertical current of water which broke up the waves as soon as they struck this barrier of air.
The "pneumatic breakwater," as it is called, has been tried out on an exposed part of the California coast, to protect a long pier used by an oil company. It has proved so satisfactory that the same company has now constructed a second breakwater about another pier near by. There is no reason why a breakwater of this sort should not be made about a wreck to protect the workers from storms. Where the water is very deep, it would not be necessary to lay the compressed-air pipe on the bottom, but it could be carried by buoys at a convenient depth.
Summing up the situation, then, there are two serious bars to the successful salvage of ships sunk in the open sea—the wild fury of the waves on the surface; and the silent, remorseless pressure of the deep. The former is the more to be feared; and if the waves really can be calmed, considerably more than half the problem is solved. As for the pressure of the sea, it can be overcome, as we have seen, either by the use of special submarine mechanisms, or of man-operated manikins or even of unarmored divers. We have reached a very interesting stage in the science of salvage, with the promise of important developments. Fifty fathoms no longer seems a hopeless depth.
Even in times of peace the sea exacts a dreadful toll of lives and property. Before the war the annual loss by shipwreck around the British Isles alone was estimated at forty-five million dollars. But the war, although it was frightfully destructive to shipping, may in the long run save more vessels than it sank; for it has given us sound-detectors which should remove the danger of collisions in foggy weather, and the wireless compass, which should keep ships from running off the course and on the rocks. And now, if salvage engineering develops as it should, the sea will be made to give up not only much of the wealth it swallowed during the war, but also many of the rich cargoes of gold and silver it has been hoarding since the days of the Spanish galleon.
[INDEX]
- Air, fighting waves, [334]
- Airplane, ambulance, [146]
- armored, [139]
- artillery-spotting, [131]
- camera, [173]
- cartridges, [131]
- classes of work, [127]
- fighting among clouds, [137]
- flying boats, [144]
- gasolene tank, [130]
- giant, [132]
- hospital, [146]
- launching from ship, [303]
- Liberty motor, [142]
- scouting, [125]
- scouts, [128]
- speed of, [134]
- spotting, [177]
- training spotters, [180]
- wireless telephone, [194]
- See also [Seaplane]
- Ambulance airplane, [146]
- Armored diving-suit, [330]
- Arms and armor, [111]
- Artillery, hand, [23]
- Atmosphere, shooting beyond, [64]
- Audion, [185]
- Balloon, Blimp, [260]
- Balloon, kite, [174]
- Barbed wire, [15]
- Barge for towing seaplanes, [302]
- Barrage, grenade, [27]
- mine, [292]
- Battle-fields, miniature, [180]
- Blimp, [260]
- Blisters on ships, [307]
- Boats, electric, [308]
- Bombs to destroy barbed wire, [16]
- Breakwater, pneumatic, [335]
- Browning, John M., [56]
- Buildings, shadowless, [227]
- Caisson disease, [325]
- Caliber, [68]
- Camera, airplane, [173]
- Camouflage and camoufleurs, [211]
- Camouflage, ships, [211]
- Cartridges, aircraft guns, [131]
- Catapults, [36]
- Caterpillar tractor, [109]
- Caves, [8]
- Coffer-dam, salvage, [318]
- Color, analyzing, [229]
- screens, [229]
- Compass, wireless, [201]
- Convoy, [267]
- Countermines, [17]
- Deep sea, conditions in, [312]
- Deep water diving, [327]
- Depth bombs, [265]
- Devil's eggs, [276]
- Diesel engine, [240]
- Direction-finder, [205]
- Dirigible, see [Balloon]
- Disease, caisson, [325]
- Diver, armored suit, [330]
- Diving, deep, [324]
- record depth, [327]
- Duck-boards, [9]
- Dugouts, [7]
- Dummy heads of papier mâché, [13]
- Eagle boats, [301]
- Egg-laying submarines, [287]
- Eggs, Devil's, [276]
- Electric motor-boat, [308]
- Engine, Diesel, [240]
- Field-guns, [81]
- Fire broom, [105]
- liquid, [103]
- Forts, machine-gun, [58]
- Fuse, grenade, [28]
- Gas, [85]
- American, [102]
- Gas attack, boomerang, [92]
- first, [89]
- Gas, chlorine, [87]
- Gasolene-tank, airplane, [130]
- Gate, barbed wire, trench, [9]
- Gates through barbed wire, [15]
- Gatling gun, [43]
- Geologists, Messines Ridge, [19]
- Glass, non-shattering, [100]
- Grapnel shell, [16]
- Graveyard, submarine, [314]
- Grenade, disk-shaped, [33]
- Grenade, wind-vane safety device, [32]
- Gun, aircraft, [131]
- American, [50]-mile, [63]
- big, hiding, [226]
- caliber, [68]
- disappearing, [77]
- double-end, [145]
- 18-inch, monitors, [306]
- elastic, [73]
- field, [81]
- 42-centimeter, [79]
- how made, [76]
- 120-mile, [70]
- long range, German, [62]
- non-recoil, [145]
- on submarine, [249]
- 16-inch, coast defense, [78]
- Skoda, [81]
- spotting by sound, [181]
- three-second life, [73]
- 12-inch, submarine, [251]
- ways of increasing range, [67]
- wire-wound, [76]
- Hand-grenade, see [Grenade]
- Helium, [164]
- Hospital, airplane, [147]
- Horizon, seeing beyond, [219]
- Howitzer, [79]
- Hush ships, [304]
- Hydroaëroplanes, see [Seaplanes]
- Hydrogen, weight of, [150]
- Hydrophone, [270]
- Illusions, optical, [215]
- Kilometer, length in miles, [6]
- Kite balloons, [174]
- Kite, water, [283]
- Liberty motor, [142]
- Liquid-fire, [103]
- Locomotives, gasolene, [10]
- Lusitania, [316]
- Machine-gun, [112]
- Machine-rifle, [55]
- Magnets, lifting, salvage, [334]
- Maps, making with camera, [175]
- Marne, first battle of, [4]
- Messines Ridge, mine, [19]
- Metal-cutting under water, [329]
- Microphone detectors, mines, [18]
- Mine-field, North Sea, [290]
- Mine laying, North Sea, [292]
- Mine-laying submarine, [287]
- Mine railroad, [294]
- Mine-sweeping, [281]
- Mines, [276]
- Mines, paravanes, [288]
- Monitors, [306]
- Mortars, [79]
- Mortars, See also [Trench mortars]
- Mother-ships for airplanes, [305]
- Motor-boat, electric, [308]
- sea Tank, [299]
- Motor torpedo-boats, [298]
- Mystery ships, [220]
- Net, North Sea, [290]
- Ocean currents, [285]
- Optical illusions, [215]
- Oxy-hydrogen torch, submarine, [329]
- Paint in war, [209]
- Papier mâché heads, [13]
- Papier mâché horse, [223]
- Parachute, [175]
- Paravanes, [288]
- Periscope, submarine, [244]
- trench, [11]
- Pill-boxes, [59]
- Pneumatic breakwater, [335]
- Pontoons, salvage, [320]
- Propeller, shooting through, [136]
- Radio, see [Wireless]
- Railroad, mine, [294]
- Railways, trench, [10]
- Range-finder, [170]
- Range, getting the, [169]
- Range of guns, increasing, [67]
- Range, torpedo, [213]
- Rats, freeing trenches of, [94]
- Rifle grenade, [28]
- safety device, [32]
- Rifle, machine, [55]
- Rifle stand, fixed, [14]
- Roads, camouflage, [225]
- Salvage, [310]
- Scouts, airplane, [128]
- Sea, deep, conditions, [312]
- Sea gulls finding submarines, [258]
- Sea lions locating submarines, [259]
- Sea tank, [299]
- Seaplane, [143]
- Search-light shell, [84]
- Shackles, salvage, [333]
- Shadowless buildings, [227]
- Shell, gas, [95]
- Shield on wheels, [114]
- Ships, airplane, [304]
- Ships, blisters, [307]
- Ships, see also [Salvage]
- Shrapnel shell, [83]
- Sled, submarine, [330]
- Smoke screen, [262]
- Sniper, locating, [13]
- Sniperscopes, [12]
- Sound, detecting submarines, [269]
- Sound detectors, mines, [18]
- Sound, spotting by, [181]
- Sphere, salvor's submarine, [332]
- Spotting by sound, [181]
- Spotting gun-fire, [177]
- Submarine, blindness, [244]
- chasers, [255]
- construction, [234]
- depth bombs, [265]
- egg-laying, [287]
- engines, [246]
- F-4, salving, [321]
- getting best of, [253]
- graveyard, [314]
- guns on, [249]
- history, [232]
- hydrophone, [270]
- mine-field, [290]
- mine-laying, [287]
- net, [290]
- oil-tank, [236]
- periscope, [244]
- reclaiming victims of, [310]
- rest chamber, [328]
- salvage vessel, [332]
- sea-gulls, [258]
- sea-lions, [259]
- seaplanes, [259]
- ships sunk, [310]
- sled, [330]
- steam-driven, [250]
- torch, [329]
- torpedo, [246]
- 12-inch gun, [251]
- vs. submarine, [269]
- Super-guns, [62]
- Tank, [107]
- Telegraphy, rapid, [199]
- Telephone, New York to San Francisco, [186]
- wireless, [178]
- Titanic, [314]
- TNT (trinitrotoluol), [18]
- Torch, submarine, [329]
- Torpedo, [299]
- Towing-barge, seaplane, [302]
- Trajectory, [22]
- Trench, gas-lock, [97]
- Trench mortar, [36]
- Trench railways, [10]
- Trench warfare, [4]
- Trenches, [21]
- Tunnels, mines, [17]
- to observation posts, [12]
- U-boats, see [Submarines]
- Villages, underground, [7]
- Walking-machine, [108]
- War, paint, [209]
- Water kites, [283]
- Waves, fighting with air, [334]
- Wireless compass, [201]
- spy detector, [200]
- Wireless telegraph, rapid, [199]
- Wireless telegraphy explained, [188]
- Wireless telephone, [178]
- airplane, [184]
- Wireless telephony across Atlantic, [192]
- Woolworth Building, falling from, [135]
- Wrecks, see [Salvage]
- Zeppelin and Lowe's balloon, [149]
- Zeppelin balloon, construction, [156]
- Zeppelin, suspended observer, [162]
- Zeppelin's failures and successes, [154]
[Transcribers' Note]
Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced quotation marks retained.
Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.
Some illustrations have been slightly repositioned to improve their appearance in eBooks.
Page [76]: "eight tenths of an inch" may be a misprint for "eight ten-thousandths of an inch".
Page [100]: "inhaled air" was misprinted as "inhaled aid".
Page [104]: "would send the stream" was misprinted as "sent".
Page [113]: "Secretely" was printed that way.
Page [209]: "psycologists" was printed that way.