Too cool not to know about ...
Simon Lake of Pleasantville
Simon Lake (September 4, 1866 – June 23, 1945) was a Quaker American mechanical engineer and naval architect who obtained over two hundred patents for advances in naval design and competed with John Philip Holland to build the first submarines for the United States Navy.
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Simon Lake Explores the Oceans
He built his first submarine, Argonaut Junior, in 1894 in response to an 1893 request from the US Navy for a submarine torpedo boat. In 1898 he followed up with the 36-foot Argonaut 1, which he sailed from Norfolk, Virginia for one thousand miles to Sandy Hook, New Jersey (which is actually 250 miles
Simon Lake's Argonaut Junior
Argonaut Junior was built in 1894 as a prototype by Simon Lake after he was denied a contract by the U.S. Navy. It was triangular, made of wood (yellow pine), and had three wheels to keep it from getting stuck to the sea bottom. She moved along the bottom of Sandy Hook Bay by one or two men cranking the axle of the two driving wheels. With sufficient air pressure in the cabin, a bottom door (air lock) could be opened and no water would come into the boat. Then by putting on a pair of rubber boots the operator could walk around on the sea bottom and push the boat along with him and pick up objects from the sea bottom.
A full-scale replica was built in 1994 and is on open-air display next to the Harbor Park in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey.
