History and Evolution of Submarines

A Dutch inventor who worked in King James I of England's royal palace in the early 1600s was the first person to build an actual submarine by putting the submarine concept into action. Cornelius Drebbel was born in 1598 and died in 1616.

_Image

Is the novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne something you've read before? There are many stories about seamen who believed that ships buried in icy seas around the world in 1860s for unknown causes had been sunk by some sort of sea monster, and this book is one of them. Eventually, the men discover that their ships were sunk by a submarine known as the Nautilus, which was commanded by Captain Nemo at the time of the disaster.

In other words, who invented the first submarine and when did it happen, and how did submarines, which had previously been the subject of science fiction literature and movies and are now regarded as one of the most essential tools in the military sector, come to be? And how did they come to be? As a group, let us investigate and find solutions to these problems.

The concept of traveling beneath the surface of the sea dates back thousands of years. Many years passed without a satisfactory solution to the problems of how to construct a vehicle that could go underwater, how to operate it, and how to provide enough oxygen to the crew. Beginning in the 16th century, entrepreneurs began to develop one-by-one remedies to the problems they were experiencing.

In the early 1500s, Italian inventor Leonardo da Vinci drew sketches of a ship that could go under water, essentially the first submarine design, which became the basis for the modern submarine.

_{ImageWooden submarine in 1578, by William Bourne}

The ballast tanks used in modern submarines were inspired by the leather-covered, wooden-framed submarine constructed by English mathematician William Bourne in 1573 and employed in the Royal Navy. According to the idea, the submarine would fill its ballast tanks with water before diving into the ocean and then empty them before rising to the top of the water. Bourne's design, on the other hand, did not make it through the preliminary sketching stage of the process.

First to put submarine design into reality was Cornelius Drebbel, a Dutch inventor who worked at the court of King James I of England. Drebbel was the first person to put submarine design into practice. A wooden boat was converted into the vehicle, which was coated in oiled leather to keep water out, and it was used to make numerous expeditions beneath the River Thames in 1620. The oxygen necessary by the submarine's 12 oars crew, which can dive to a depth of 4-5 meters, was produced by heating potassium nitrate.

The Turtle submarine, designed by David Bushnell of the United States Navy, was the world's first submarine to be used for military purposes. The Turtle, which stood 2 meters tall and plunged into the river in 1776, was constructed entirely of oak wood. The propellers of this one-man submarine, which has a coconut-like look, were spun by hand to push it forward. While Turtle could blow a time bomb on an enemy ship with the use of the long screw mechanism on its top cover, it was unable to sink any ship with this method.

A concept developed by one of the early steamship pioneers, Robert Fulton of the United States, that could be floated on the surface of the water with wings or sail-like structures and submerged with a hand-turned propeller was developed in the early 1800s. He couldn't go into the ocean with his submarine, which he dubbed Nautilus, because it was too inconspicuous and hence rendered worthless by the authorities.

It was necessary for submarines to have a source of energy other than a hand-turned propeller in order to attract attention, as well as a weapon that could destroy ships. This was pulled together by John Holland, an Irish-American engineer who was instrumental in putting everything in place.

A modern submarine powered by a gasoline engine above water and an electric motor below water was invented by Holland in 1881, and it is still in use today. Following up on his previous efforts, Holland sold the USS Holland, a 15-meter-long submarine that could carry three torpedoes. Holland received a good return on his investment (submarine weapons used to sink ships). After that, he went on to develop submarines for a variety of other countries around the world.

After the 1950s, submarines began to use nuclear power to propel their propulsion systems. With each dive, nuclear submarines are able to stay under water for months at a time and restock their food supplies since they have the capability to produce drinking water and ice on the surface.

A modern submarine is made up of around 7 million pieces and more than 2000 engineering drawings, according to the manufacturer.

_{Image a nuclear submarine}

Submarines are not equipped with windows. Consequently, sound is employed to prevent colliding with objects in the water and to identify adjacent ships in the vicinity. SONAR devices are used to accomplish this by producing sound waves and allowing for the detection of reflected sound waves.

Submarine crews are forced to work in a confined space for extended periods of time, surrounded by a large amount of machinery and equipment.

On many submarines, the number of beds available is less than the number of crew members on board. So, half the workforce sleeps at night, while the other half works throughout the day.

---

References:

• https://www.wikiwand.com/en/History_of_submarines
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine