Mrs. H. Stanley

“ He designed folding-boats for easy stowage on ship board, to be always ready for immediate use; these boats to be provided with compass and rudder, and furnished with a screw. The material to be employed for them remains their inventor’s secret, until a company, with a capital of 40,000 to 50,000 thalers undertakes to adopt the invention after he has proved to them its success.
As almost every mechanician has had his dream of aerial navigation, we cannot be surprised to find the designer of the hyponaut planned a machine to make us alike independent of land and water travel ”

“ How few cases there are, if we look back through the history of discovery, where any one man has held undisputed claim as sole inventor, even when the inventor can at all be identified. The reflection of a wide-felt requirement suggests the same idea to men who have no mutual knowledge but unconsciously by their sympathy with the needs of their age. ”

“ Bauer begged the men “not to hinder or cling to each other, or they would all be lost.” Another moment and Witt was rising safely to terra firma. Bauer clutched at the hatchway by his right hand, trying to support his remaining companion by the left, who had become so exhausted and confused, that he grasped at anything for support, not knowing what he did; and Bauer, fearing he might not be able to get through the hatchway, then endeavoured to secure him by the hair, but the cold water had so benumbed his hand it was impossible to hold fast with it. ”

“ To the repeated inquiries as to “how they felt,” the sailors constantly answered, “Quite well.”
When lucifers were struck they only fizzed and sputtered, would not burn. German tinder succeeded better; for the exhausted atmosphere, hungering for oxygen, uniting with the atoms of saltpetre in the process of ignition, the tinder, instead of its usual dull glow, threw out a long bright flame, made as it were of electric sparks. ”

“ The deck was furnished with several windows of thick glass, and a hatchway to admit to the interior. The motive power for sinking or raising the vessel was secured by a pump admitting the requisite water to carry her down, which being expelled, she would necessarily rise again to the surface. A screw furnished the propelling action. A pair of gutta-percha gloves affixed to the head, enabled the exploding apparatus to be fastened to an antagonist’s vessel. We will not, however, linger over a particular description of the doomed craft. ”

“ It was in 1849, when hostilities broke out with Denmark, that Bauer first began to see some hope in the future. He was ordered to the seat of war with his regiment. Many plans for defence and attack of ships and batteries were suggested to him by the events of the Schleswig-Holstein campaign, and especially the loss sustained by the Bavarians and Saxons in the Duppler Works from the Danish vessels turned his thoughts to the possibility of making a diving-machine, in which an enemy’s ship could be approached unseen and blown up. ”

“ The great men of science at St. Petersburg had declared officially that “if Herr Bauer’s plan for submarine navigation did not succeed, they believed no other would ever solve the problem.” And now, November 2nd, 1855, the Russian admiralty entered into possession of the completed “hyponaut.” But all these last months a great entanglement of very dirty red tape had been gathering round the hands of our inventor. Prince Constantine and Baron Mangle, Minister of Marine, had in vain given all their influence to forward the work ”

“ The pump could scarcely be worked. The brave captain still bade his companions “not to fear; so long as the iron walls were still true, they could escape, at the worst, by the hatchway.” They tell him they will not think of abandoning the vessel whilst there is still a chance of saving her, and work manfully at the leaking pump, though there is little possibility that, isolated from the upper air, there can remain enough to support life within the vessel till they thus slowly raise her to the surface. ”

“ Four men to work the treadwheels and pumps were found sufficient for short experiments. As the machine could contain but a small amount of air, it was not found practicable to make more than about three versts in one descent. The men were obliged to rest at intervals from the treadwheel, as sharp work under water as above, and Bauer was convinced that for deep sea investigations, it would be necessary to apply the motive power he had invented. ”

“ Petersen and Witt had suffered so much from the cold water and compressed air, that they were consigned for some days to hospital. Bauer, supported by the inexhaustible spirit of the inventor, was restored to his usual health in a few hours. But the diving ship lay immovable forty feet under water, and, I believe, is there still.
Bauer wrote shortly after to a friend: “The whole thing was wretchedly built; the most necessary precautions in the construction of the machinery neglected through insufficient funds.” ”

“ Bauer descended with eight sailors and a smith; as soon as the vessel was under the surface she was made to roll and pitch like an intoxicated porpoise; the exercise discontinued now and then to take observations on the temperature. Of course such “sea-legs” practice had caused an abnormal consumption of air. The temperature on earth stood at 35° Reau., and was at first 40° within the hyponaut, then gradually sunk to, and remained at, 18° or 20°. ”

“ The hyponaut was swamped on the 2nd October, 1856, on her 134th (!) trial under water.
Bauer now received orders to build a submarine corvette of 24 guns, with steam power for surface navigation, and his atmospheric invention to act under water. She was to be provided with sufficient air to remain six hours below water with 75 men. To be about 150 feet long, 12 feet high, and 20 feet broad. The cannons to be closed by a self-acting valve when under water, but to be fired from above the level by allowing the vessel to rise when at the right distance from the enemy. ”

“ Again the hope vanished at the moment of realisation, but the good Prince gave some comfort to the much-tried inventor, supplying his purse sufficiently to go back to Munich and complete another model, with which he shortly returned to England in 1853, and for nearly three years was in constant correspondence with our Admiralty: made drawings, furnished plans and models, and when all these at last promised a successful issue, he was informed: “The English Government could not adopt submarine navigation whilst her present naval force met every possible requirement (!) ”

“ Had he had a more liberal education, or a kindlier vantage-ground for his start in life, than that given in the ranks of an army to scientific talent, he might have been spared some of the cramping hindrances of poverty and bitterness of delayed hope. ”

“ As soon as the specific gravity with the displaced water was obtained, an additional 5 lbs. ballast immediately secured an equable descent; double that weight pumped from the vessel she would rise in the same ratio. An officer, ten sailors, and a smith went down with Bauer. He says he never saw men cross themselves with such unction as his sailors, when, after their first dip, they again got above water, crying “Staba Bochu!” ”

“ The principle is all right; we can’t help the pumps breaking.”
Much talk then ensued in the papers on Bauer and his achievements and difficulties, with no result to him, however, and he was thrown upon his own resources. He returned to Munich, constructed a model of the lost Hyponaut, again proved its locomotive power, and further, the practicability of supplying fresh air to the interior. ”

“ For inland fortifications, these batteries, requiring as they would, no great depth of water, could be placed, in any given number, in moats, surrounding an inner citadel, which would supply room for stores and shelter for the men when required. ”

“ The Admiralty appointed 200 or 300 men for the purpose, but they never succeeded in getting it more than 1000 yards in a day. Behold! in the accounts submitted by his manufacturers Bauer had discovered a little error of 16,700 rubles! ”