John Holland's 1872 one man pedal power submarines

[Florida Diver]

My father was a submariner in the Pacific during WW2. I inherited his love for submarines and I especially like the early subs such as the Resurgam, Pioneer, Hunley, American Diver, Ictineo II, Argonaut, Jules Verne's Nautilus, etc. John Holland built subs for the U.S. Navy and the first U.S. Navy sub was a Holland of 1901. I know, I know, some will claim that the still not recovered from the ocean "Alligator" was the first U.S. Navy sub, but not only is the Alligator's very existence unproven, but there is also some contention as to whether or not it had actually been adopted by the U.S. Navy, or whether it was still a civilian sub when it supposedly floundered and sunk off Cape Hatteras while being towed during a storm. So unless or until the "Alligator" is found to prove its actual existence as well as until documentation is found to prove it to be the first sub adopted by the U.S. Navy, until that time the Holland is the first documented submarine adopted by the U.S. Navy.

But has anyone here ever heard of John Holland's one man subs of 1872?
I have two drawings of them below. It would be great if someone would model them in cutaway style to show how the singer sewing machine type pedal works the flywheel to turn the gear that turns the prop.

This 1872 drawing of Holland's shows a helmeted diver using a periscope.



This 1872 John Holland drawing shows what for all the world looks like Spiderman operating this 1872 submarine! Lol. This drawing shows a much better representation of the Singer sewing machine type foot pedal and flywheel that turned the prop shaft. Both of these drawings were AMAZINGLY advanced for 1872.




Both these Holland drawings from 1872 remind me of my own two person wetsub that once was in the 1966 movie "Destination Inner Space" about an alien flying saucer that crashes into the ocean next to an underwater laboratory (how convenient Lol) and of course they go over and check it out (using my wetsub) and bring an alien egg pod back to the laboratory which of course hatches out an alien. Cheesy saturday afternoon sci fi film. Which many years later was remade into the famous "Alien" movie. I've been working on it and have built a motor mount out of an old stop sign for my 74lb thrust Minnkota motor and am currently building a canopy for it. It's controls are set up just like an airplane and uses foot pedals for the rudder and a joystick to operate the dive planes. Being a "wet" sub, I have to use scuba equipment to breathe. The original movie motor was gone before I got it and it was set up after the movie with a quick release mechanism on the nose for a tow rope for towing for lobstering in the keys, according to what the old retiring diver I bought it from told me. I've still got to oil equalize my new 74lb thrust Minnkota motor against outside water pressure, put two small ballast tanks on either side and build the water pressure proof battery boxes, wire it all up with a magnetic switch to control the motor for half speed, full speed, reverse and stop and finish the canopy. So lots to do yet before it gets in the water again.

Constucting the canopy out of PVC tubing I heat with a heat gun to curve to shape.




Homemade motor mount I built from an old stop sign.


Upside down view of my wetsub as I put my homemade motor mount on it.


How my wetsub looked when I first got it. The rear wind/water shield for the passenger that used
to be on it in the movie was missing as well as the original motor and an after movie rudder had been
added in place of the original motor.





Compare this below view of my wetsub's nose with the after movie added quick release cable mechanism,
to the pic below it showing my sub's nose in the 1966 movie "Destination Inner Space" sci fi movie.





A few more pics of it from the movie.

[Thomas Meek]

Cool! Thanks for the post. That's one trashy movie I somehow managed to miss, and I thought I'd seen them all. The movie prop wetsub looks like a great project, and I hope you will post further progress with it.

Your info about the Holland submarines is fascinating. I was not aware of his one-man sub projects.

Simon Lake's "Argonaut" with wheels for rolling along the bottom could be the subject for an unusual looking model also.

Thomas

[cjwalas]

Well, I for one did not miss seeing "Destination Inner Space".

In the days of only three TV channels, no videos, no DVDs and no instant downloads, we monster fans starved for the occasional showing of anything with a monster in it.

Great to see that the mini-sub survived!

It would be fantastic to see a really good series (meaning large enough for weak old eyes) of the early submarines. There was such a large selection and variety!
Chris

[Florida Diver]

Originally Posted by Thomas Meek

Cool! Thanks for the post. That's one trashy movie I somehow managed to miss, and I thought I'd seen them all. The movie prop wetsub looks like a great project, and I hope you will post further progress with it.

Your info about the Holland submarines is fascinating. I was not aware of his one-man sub projects.

Simon Lake's "Argonaut" with wheels for rolling along the bottom could be the subject for an unusual looking model also.

Thomas

I will post about my wetsub when I get more completed on it. Funny you should mention Simon Lake's Argonaut. I'm actually friends with his grandson Jeff Lake. I've also been trying to find a good model of the Argonaut too. I've been toying with the idea of making one out of a soda bottle because if you look at the main hull of the Argonaut, you will see it looks almost exactly like a plastic soda bottle. Then Just add a paper upper deck and the wheels and other details.

[Florida Diver]

Originally Posted by cjwalas

Well, I for one did not miss seeing "Destination Inner Space".
Attachment 57826
In the days of only three TV channels, no videos, no DVDs and no instant downloads, we monster fans starved for the occasional showing of anything with a monster in it.
Attachment 57827
Great to see that the mini-sub survived!

It would be fantastic to see a really good series (meaning large enough for weak old eyes) of the early submarines. There was such a large selection and variety!
Chris

Alright! Another sci fi fan like me. You are one of the very few people I've met who not only knows the movie, but ever even heard about it. Kudos.

[treadhead1952]

Oh yeah, I may be dating myself, but I remember watching that one on the Saturday afternoon "Chiller Theater" as a youngster during those same three channel years CJ.

Aliens, underwater scenes, Sci Fi in it's early days, all manna from heaven for me even way back then. Looking forward to seeing you launch your mini sub again.

[Zathros]

"Chiller Theater" used to scare the cr@p out of me. I found this thread most fun and interesting. I would love to have a sub like Holland's 1872 Model. That is just plane fun. Thanks for the great info.

[Gil]

I did some work on the SS-1 the U.S.S. Holland. John Holland is one of the more interesting and remarkable characters of the American Belle Epocque period. Below is a box art render of the mesh work...,

+Gil

[Florida Diver]

Hi Guys. I've been busy and haven't had a chance to post here in a long time. Thought I'd drop in again.

Did you fellas know that the Holland was slightly positive buoyant all the time? The boat had to be dynamically dove for it to go under. Speed had to maintained or it would automatically rise to the surface. That's called a "dynamic diving" submarine. You have to "dynamically" dive it using speed and the dive planes to force the sub underwater. You can't just fill the ballast tanks to submerge. With all the sinkings the Hunley crews suffered about 35 years earlier, along with other early sub sinking mishaps, perhaps Holland, (or more likely the Navy) thought it would be prudent to keep the sub slightly positive buoyant and to just dive it dynamically.

But if you got a leak and took on water, that slight positive buoyancy wasn't going to help you anyway. That type of "dynamic diving" sub didn't last long and later models used their ballast tanks to submerge.

[Darwin]

Along the same lines, has anyone heard of (or have some reference drawings) of a submarine named the Explorer that was made in the mid 1860s? I saw a fascinating Discovery Channel documentary on it called "America's Lost Submarine." It was a civilian venture rather than military, which is maybe why history passed it by. It was a double hull design, and used very modern boyancy tank design for submergance. The submarine still apparently exists, though in very sad condition, on a pacific island beach near Panama, where it was used (albeit unsucessfully) for pearl diving (it apparently used compressed air to maintain internal pressure above water pressure and had a hatch in the bottom of the submarine through which the operators would collect oysters from the seabed).