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Old Underwater Diving Suits
Next best thing to steam robots in Victorian technology and a clear inspiration behind Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea". This one is from the Museé Marin, Paris:
(image credit: Sam /TudoAzul)
And this one is from the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco:
(image credit: Avi Abrams)
Not a robot, but definitely looks like one:
One of the earliest dive boats by Wilhelm Bauer (1852):
(image credit: Deutsches Museum)
Rather more antique is the "Turtle" - an invention by Ezra Bushnell from 1752:
Last year New York artist Philip "Duke" Riley created a replica of it - and proceeded to test it around Rhode Island. It did descent to 200 meters, but the adventurers later were stopped by police for doing it without authorization at the Red Hook Brooklyn cruise ship terminal.
World War II sub curiosities
We will start with rarely-seen and interestingly shaped Nazi U-Boats. Yes, one of them looks like a shoe, but who cares as long as its specs are great?
World War II definitely spawned most bizarre ideas in military technology.
Here is the legendary I-400 Japanese Sub Plane Launcher:
These were the giant submarine aircraft carriers, complete with a launching catapult and three planes, plus a good deal of torpedoes. It had enough fuel to go around the world 1.5 times... and it was the biggest underwater boat ever made (before the advent of nuclear submarines).
Russian Subs Lurking in Deep Waters
Huge, dark, bloated shapes were swimming in the minds of Soviet sub boat designers during the Stalin's era. Look at some of the concepts below - they seem to illustrate the very spirit of the times: deadly menace lurking under the universal cover of secrecy. Truly, Stalin should've entered a submarine design business instead of killing millions - maybe it should've prove therapeutic to his dark soul.
The dream of crossing the North pole beneath the Arctic ice cap was first realized in 1958. K-19 was the first Soviet nuclear submarine, and the first Soviet sub to reach the North Pole (earning a nickname of "Hiroshima", or "Widowmaker" because of the frequent fire and radiation leak accidents)
As recent as July 2007, a Russian nuclear sub planted a flag on the seabed at the North Pole, effectively saying to the world "the Arctic is Russian". Read the full story here.
Here is a historical line-up of Russian / Soviet Navy Fleet submarines, starting from the World War I "Bars"-class (1915) and ending with the first nuclear sub series (more info) -
(image credit: N. Rozhoi, TM)
First Russian ballistic missiles nuclear submarines were called Hotel-class:
As the Cold war progressed they were getting bigger and deadlier:
The newest Borei-class submarine "Yury Dolgoruki" was recently launched in Russia - equipped with 16 Bulava ballistic missiles. Two more are on the way:
(images credit: RIA Novosti)
Giant Futuristic Submarines
Frank Herbert (highly-praised author of "Dune" and also of the submarine thriller "Under Pressure") would have loved this one:
In terms of sheer size, this concept from Bohn Aluminum & Brass Corp. (from the 40s) clearly wins:
"The Iron Whale" (1933) - a monster child of pre-war German engineer Herr Schiff. The Star Wars-kind of sea monster even comes equipped with electric eyes in front and a flexible tail... -
(image credit: Modern Mechanix)
Try this one for size: an underwater hotel and cruise ship from the 1950s (a Russian concept) -
(image credit: TM, Russia)
Another German futuristic vision from the Cold War era: still gargantuan in its scale -
(image credit: Retro-futurismus)
(image credit: Radebaugh)
Modern submarines can be intimidating too. To really appreciate their size, check out this photo of transporting a part of nuclear sub to another base across land:
Micro-submarines of the future
Remember this wonderful little submarine from the quintessential steampunk art book "Dinotopia: The World Beneath"?
(art by: James Gurney "Dinotopia")
Well, outside of imaginary Victorian technology, the concepts for personal underwater transport started to appear 'en masse' in the early 1960s - already looking very streamlined in Russian magazines:
(image credit: TM, Russia)
This seems to be a precursor to modern Innespace "Breacher" and "Dolphin" personal subs (see below). Also don't miss our article about submersible concepts of Guillermo Sureda-Burgos.
(image credit: Innespace)
Though some weirder ideas definitely were not meant to be realized:
A few micro-submarines have been built as do-it-yourself projects. Mikhail Puchkov' model navigates various Russian rivers since 1988 - spooking the local KGB authorities:
And Michael Henrik Schmelter from Germany created "2Dive": a two-person boat capable of diving down to 100 meters.
(images credit: Spiegel)
A Mystery Spaceship?
This puzzle was offered inside a vintage issue of Modern Mechanics:
"Would you say that this queer-looking contraption was a jet-propelled life raft, a plane fuselage flying without wings, or some other super-secret, odd invention just released for public view?"
(image credit: Modern Mechanix)
Yep. Just turn it upside down and you'll see that it's a submarine's conning tower.
And we finish with the stuff of nightmares:
A Submarine-Land Dreadnaught (1924)
Eight hundred foot high... longer than the perspective itself could reveal... Luckily this did not go beyond the painting on the cover of Hugo Gernsback's groundbreaking "Science & Invention" magazine. But Hayao Miyazaki probably had a similar dream / nightmare, bringing a few steam Goliaths to the big screen. Even today this picture has power to intimidate. Just lose the antenna and upgrade the house to some nice Californian suburb.
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