Landships II

Something in me wants to caption the picture " The Rivet Counter's Nightmare...

 I'm also reminded of a cover illustration ( Mechanics Illustrated, I think? ) that
 showed a similar vehicle. That one was closer to a Beebe-Barton type
 sphere on treads...I wonder if theres a connection? Is there more info on
 this machine somewhere?

Craig York wrote:

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Something in me wants to caption the picture " The Rivet Counter's Nightmare...

 I'm also reminded of a cover illustration ( Mechanics Illustrated, I think? ) that
 showed a similar vehicle. That one was closer to a Beebe-Barton type
 sphere on treads...I wonder if theres a connection? Is there more info on
 this machine somewhere?

---

I quote from the site on which I found it

"The inventor was Jesse Wilford Reno, i.e. J.W. Reno! This American inventor is not in the first place famous for his invention of an underwater tank, he of all people is the inventor of the escalator! In 1899 Reno registered his patent to the Reno Inclined Elevator  and found the Reno Inclined Elevator Company & Co. Short after he registered his inventions he sold his company to Otis in 1920. After  his career with Reno Inclined Elevators and Otis, Reno started the Reno Marine Salvage Company. Jesse W. Reno invented a system to salvage ship wrecks from considerable depths and proportions. Hereto he designed an underwater vehicle to shoot or drill holes in the wreck. In this holes a hook with a chain was installed by a moveable manipulation arm. Attached to this chain there was a submersible pontoon measuring 4.5 x14 meter with a lifting capacity of 200 tons. With a number of this pontoons a sunken ship could be made afloat by inflating the pontoons with air. In order to make the wholes Reno patented an underwater tank with a 4 canon that could shoot wholes in the wreck. In the same year (1919) he also filed patent for an identical underwater tank equipped with a drilling mechanism. The tank was equipped with a 20 hp motor to drive, drill and to establish the hook to the submersible pontoon. The patents shown here give detailed information as to the ways ships could be salvaged. The salvation of the Scally a 500 ton weighing steamer that lay on 20 meters of depth at Long Island Sound, proved that Renos method was more than fiction. In the patents it is described that the compressed air was going to the tanks cabin via an open connection to the surface. Stelzner describes in his book however, that the tank was functioning autonomously and could do so for 24 hours without surfacing.  If that was the case it explains why Stelzner described this tank in his book. There must have been an air regeneration system on board. Below you see the available photos and biography of Jesse Wilford Reno and a number of his patents. Another special detail I would like to mention is that Reno also had a patent for a floating airfield that could be moved by means of a propeller. In other words, an aircraft carrier in very early days! "

I do now, but its not much ( Still, thirty minutes ago I'd never heard of the thing...)


http://strangevehicles.greyfalcon.us/KRUPP%20KUGELPANZER.htm

-- Edited by Craig York at 23:49, 2007-04-20

Extremely interesting Centurion!!!

I would imagine that Reno utilised bottled oxygen in the same way that Zeppelin crews did in WWI.

He might also have used those cartridges of... Blast, I can't quite remember... But in a WWI submarine book I was just reading, the crew had to turn off all electrical devices while riding a period of time out on the sea floor. In order to prevent the atmosphere from becomming dangerously high in carbon dioxide, they were breathing into these scrubber cartridges that would progressively get hotter and hotter the more they did this. Apparently it worked fairly well, although eventually you would need to wear gloves or hold the cartridge in a rag in order to not get burned - I had never heard of this device before.

Another thing that's interesting is that it appears the vehicle was man powered.


In this picture we see two big helm-style wheels apparently operating each track. This would seem to be different than the "20 hp motor" mentioned in the article.

One also wonders what that gun is supposed to be? Item number 15 in that image appears to be the bullet used to penetrate the ship. The gun also appears to be able to be loaded from the inside - certainly it must have been a bizarre concept, probably unpracticable, hence why he moved on to the drill.

However, I wonder what combination of details in that image, and this image he actually put into the completed vehicle?


I believe the completed vehicles drive assembly was much closer to the first drawing. For one thing... Look at the photograph, those axles coming out of the side of the vehicle on each side are clearly what would be connected to those helm-wheels. You can even see the drive belts going from them down to the tracks. It's presumable that the completed vehicle was man-powered, carried a simple carbon dioxide scrubber device, and carried an ammount of bottled oxygen. This is the only way a 24hr underwater autonomous endurance could possibly make sense, and I believe it appears to be supported by the patent drawings as compared to the real photographs.

I think that the completed vehicle did not have a motor. The author of the book mentioned as the source of the information seems to be misinformed. While that second patent drawing shows the motor drive assembly, that does not appear to be drive assembly that Reno settled on.

Thank you very much for posting this Centurion! I absolutely love this bizarre stuff that really gets your mind working!

---Vil.

Thanks guys this has been a very interesting topic, I am glad you gave us the therebreathersite.nl site Vilkata it sheds some light on the subject, you can also find Mr. Reno's complete patents on the UK patent site.

http://gb.espacenet.com/search97cgi/s97_cgi.exe?Action=FormGen&Template=gb/en/advanced.hts

Does anyone no any thing about the Armored Diving suit the Germans designed during the war. I have a drawing, and a rather poor photo. I would love to learn more

All the Best

Tim R

-- Edited by Tim R at 17:44, 2007-04-25

-- Edited by Tim R at 17:44, 2007-04-25

What a small world Roger, while researching Mr. Reno, I found this site describing Mr. Beebes Adventure with the Bathysphere.

http://hometown.aol.com/chines6930/mw1/sphere.htm

 

Very interesting..

 

All the best

Tim R