Irish master of the deep
QUESTION
There’s a memorial to the inventor of the submarine in Drogheda, but history attributes a number of other names to the engineering feat. Who really invented it?
ALTHOUGH JOHN Philip Holland, from Liscannor, Co. Clare, is widely credited with having invented the submarine, many other inventors long before him, as well as contemporaries of his, invented similar devices that could sail beneath the surface of the sea.
In Ancient Greece, about 2,500 years ago, primitive submarines were being used to clear underwater obstructions. Much later, during the Middle Ages, many other plans were made to try to create submarines. One of the first prototypes was designed in 1578 by an Englishman, William Bourne, who made a completely enclosed boat that could be rowed beneath the surface of a river.
Then, a Dutchman called Cornelius Jacobszoon Drebbel, who worked in the service of King James I of England, created the first successful submarine, in 1620.
It resembled a bell, towed by a boat, and when he tested it on the River Thames, it worked perfectly. Drebbel was able to calculate the depth to which his submarine had sunk and he also devised a method for making oxygen from saltpetre, so that the submarine had breathable air.
At the end of the 17th century, a Frenchman, Denis Papin, designed and built two submarines. By the middle of the following century, the 18th, more than a dozen patents had been granted in England for submarines. The first military submarine had been built in Russia in 1720, while the first American military submarine was the Turtle, built in 1776.
The first submarine capable of diving, cruising beneath the water and then resurfacing was designed by a German-American engineer, Julius H. Kroehl, in 1866.
The 19th century saw many attempts in England, France, Spain and other countries to create workable submarines.
So, long before John Philip Holland came on the scene, the idea of designing and building submarines was very well established.
Born in Liscannor in 1840, Holland worked as a teacher, including in Drogheda, where a model of his first submarine was unveiled in 2014. However, he emigrated to America in 1875. There, he built a model submarine in 1876 and a full-scale one in 1878, known as the Fenian Ram. But it took Holland until 1896 to develop the sixth version of his submarine.
This vessel used an internal combustion engine to power it on the surface, while electric batteries propelled it when it was underwater. It was launched at a shipyard in New Jersey on May 17, 1897, and it was considered the first submarine that worked efficiently. The vessel was bought in 1900 by the US Navy and renamed the USS Holland. It became the first submarine in the American navy.
In 1902, Holland received a US patent for his work in perfecting the submarine, and other countries became interested in purchasing the design.
In England, the Royal Navy started building Holland class submarines under licence; the first one was ready in 1902, and by the start of the First World War, the Royal Navy had the world’s largest fleet of submarines.
Other countries that owed much to Holland’s designs included
France, Russia and Germany. As for Holland himself, he died in relative poverty in August 1914, just as the First World War was starting, and just weeks before HMS Pathfinder in the Royal Navy became the first vessel to be sunk by a torpedo from a submarine.
So while John Philip Holland was the first to create a submarine that worked successfully above and below the water, his work was the culmination of many centuries of previous endeavour to try to make a submersible vessel that could sail beneath the surface.
Dennis Leahy, Dublin.
QUESTION
Why was the anchor adopted as the hallmark for silver made in Birmingham, which is nowhere near the sea?
THIS hallmark was derived from the sign of the famous London pub, the Crown and Anchor, in the Strand. It’s an interesting tale about how it was adopted for silver items made in Birmingham.
Hallmarking began in 1300 when a statute of Edward I instituted the assaying (testing) and marking of precious metals to protect the public against fraud and traders against unfair competition.
In the 1700s, innovations in the manufacturing processes and the use of machines in silver production in Birmingham and Sheffield resulted in a call for new assay offices in these cities.
The prime mover was manufacturer Matthew Boulton, who had established the Soho foundry in Handsworth, Birmingham, in 1762, producing buckles, buttons, silver plates and silverware.
By the 1770s, he employed more than 700 workers and his customers included royalty. His foundry was at the cutting edge of technology, introducing factoryline systems, interchangeable parts and stock control.
The need to provide a power source for his factory led Boulton to finance James Watt’s steam engine.
Boulton became increasingly exasperated that he was forced to send his goods 70 miles to the Chester Assay Office for hallmarking. He complained that the travel expense, the threat of highwaymen and the careless handling of his goods at Chester were affecting business.
However, his real concern was that the Chester silversmiths were stealing his best-selling designs.
William Legge, second earl of Dartmouth, who was a neighbour and confidant of Boulton, advised him to petition for an Act of Parliament authorising an assay office in Birmingham.
Boulton was approached by Sheffield’s Company of Cutlers and agreed to press for their petition, too. Despite opposition from the Goldsmiths’ Company in London, Boulton’s lobbying was a success and the Assay Bill gained royal assent on May 28, 1773.
During his long stay in London, Boulton lived at the Crown and Anchor.
Precisely how the crown and anchor symbols were allocated as hallmarks is unknown. Perhaps it was the toss of a coin that determined Birmingham, in the centre of England and miles from the sea, should adopt the anchor while Sheffield took the crown.
Birmingham’s first assay office was opened above the King’s Head inn on New Street in August 1773.
Max Fry, Wolverhampton, W. Mids.
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