Narcís Monturiol i Estarriol
Narcís Monturiol Estarriol (28 September 1819 – 6 September 1885) was a Catalan engineer, artist and intellectual. He was the inventor of the first combustion engine driven submarine, which was propelled by an early form of air-independent propulsion.
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Biography
Monturiol i Estarriol was born in the city of Figueres, Catalonia, Spain. He was the son of a cooper. Monturiol went to high school in Cervera and got a law degree in Madrid in 1845. He solved the fundamental problems of underwater navigation. In effect, Monturiol invented the first fully functional submarine.
Monturiol never practiced law, instead turning his talents to writing and publishing, setting up a publishing company in 1846, the same year he married his wife Emilia. He produced a series of journals and pamphlets espousing his radical beliefs in feminism, pacifism, and utopian communism. He also founded the newspaper La Madre de Familia, in which he promised "to defend women from the tyranny of men" and La Fraternidad, Spain's first communist newspaper.
Monturiol's friendship with Abdó Terrades led him to join the Republican Party and his circle of friends included such names as musician Josep Anselm Clavé, engineer and reformist Ildefons Cerdà. Monturiol also became an enthusiastic follower of the utopian thinker and socialist Étienne Cabet; he popularised Cabet's ideas through La Fraternidad and produced a Spanish translation of his novel, Voyage en Icarie. A circle formed round La Fraternidad raised enough money for one of them to travel to Cabet's utopian community, Icaria.
Following the revolutions of 1848 one of his publications was suppressed by the government and he was forced into a brief exile in France. When he returned to Barcelona in 1849, the government curtailed his publishing activities, and he turned his attention to science and engineering instead.
A stay in Cadaqués allowed him to observe the dangerous job of coral harvesters where he even witnessed the death of a man who drowned while performing this job. This prompted him to think of submarine navigation and in September 1857 he went back to Barcelona and organized the first commercial society in Spain dedicated to the exploration of submarine navigation with the name of Monturiol, Font, Altadill y Cia. and a capital of 10,000 pesetas.
In 1858 Monturiol presented his project in a scientific thesis titled The Ictineo or fish-ship. The first dive of his first submarine, Ictineo I, took place on September 1859 in the harbour of Barcelona.
Ictineo I
Ictineo I had dimensions of 7 m (23 ft) long, 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) wide, and 3.5 m (11 ft) deep, and its intended use was to ease the harvest of coral. The internal watertight hull was of cïrcular cross-section to resist hydrostatic pressure and had a volume of 7 m3 (250 cu ft), while the outer hull was streamlined (fish-shaped), roughly an ellipsoid of circular section. There is a very remote possibility that it was inspired by the prototype Brandtaucher of Wilhelm Bauer that had already sailed in 1851; Brandtaucher is now in the German Military History Museum in Dresden. The revolutionary idea of the inner pressure-resistant hull and outer hydrodynamic one was however completely new. The Ictineo I was propelled by a flat bladed propeller powered by a crew of four men, while diving was achieved by means of a horizontal helix that could turn in both directions, and water and air pumps for the purposes of ensuring stability and flotation. The prow was equipped with a set of tools suited to the harvest of coral.
Monturiol devised a method of removing carbon dioxide from the submarine's interior by forcing the air through a container of calcium hydroxide and also devised a method of producing oxygen which unfortunately proved unfeasible because it produced sulfuric acid. For interior illumination he used a simple candle, which had the advantage of turning red when oxygen began to run low and so alerted the crew.
During the summer of 1859 Monturiol performed more than 20 dives in the Ictineo, with his business partner and shipbuilder as crew. He gradually increased the depth he dived to until he reached his 20 m (66 ft) limit, and learned that the crew could remain submerged for about 2 hours using only the oxygen sealed inside the pressure hull, and that their endurance could be doubled using compressed oxygen and his carbon dioxide scrubber. The Ictineo I turned out to possess good handling, but its top speed was disappointing, powered as it was only by human muscle power.
The partial success of this submersible brought popular enthusiasm but no support from the government. As a result, Monturiol wrote a letter to the nation and encouraged a popular subscription which raised 300,000 pesetas from citizens of mainland Spain and Cuba.
Ictineo was eventually destroyed in January 1862 after some 50 dives, when a cargo vessel ran into it while it was berthed. With the money obtained from the subscription, the company La Navegación Submarina was formed with the objective of developing the Ictineo II.
A modern replica of the Ictineo I stands in the garden entrance to the Marine Museum in Barcelona.
Ictineo II
Intended as an improved version of the Ictineo I, the Ictineo II was launched on 2 October 1864. It was 14 m (46 ft) long, 2 m (6 ft 7 in) wide, and 3 m (9.8 ft) deep, and was built from olive tree wood with oak reinforcements and a 2 millimeter thick layer of copper. On its upper side it had a deck 1.3 m (4 ft 3 in) wide and a hatch with three glazed portholes of 200 mm (7.9 in) diameter and 100 mm (3.9 in) thick glass blocks. conning tower the helm could be steered by means of an endless screw gear. It was hand-propelled like its predecessor, but included many improvements such as a chemical-powered underwater light, retractable pincers for handling objects, and separate ballast tanks for trim and depth control. These tanks consisted of four sealed compartments of 8 m3 (280 cu ft) symmetrically located on each side which gave buoyancy when they were empty and could be flooded at will to submerge. Surfacing was achieved by forcing air into the compartments with a hand pump. A weight could be moved longitudinally along a rail in order to control pitch while diving, remotely controlled by the helmsman. The submarine also had an escape mechanism that allowed the ballast to be jettisoned and allow it to surface in the event of an emergency.
The Ictineo II made her maiden voyage under human power on 20 May 1865, submerging to a depth of 30 metres (98 ft). Dissatisfied with the limitations of human propulsion, Monturiol realized that the only option was steam power, but contemporary steam engines required a fire which was not an option for a submarine. He returned to his chemical experiments, and after trying many different combinations, arrived at a solution of 53% zinc, 16% manganese dioxide, and 31% potassium chlorate which could generate sufficient heat to power a steam engine while at the same time producing oxygen which was collected in a tank and used for breathing purposes. He purchased a six-cylinder steam engine and divided it in half; one half was to be powered by a coal-burning boiler for surface propulsion, while the other half was driven by a separate boiler fueled by his chemical mixture.
Monturiol envisaged a new vessel custom built to house his new engine, which would be entirely built of metal with the engine housed in its own separate compartment. However, due to the state of his finances, construction of a new vessel was out of the question, and instead he managed to assemble enough funds to fit the engine into the Ictineo II.
On 22 October 1867 Ictineo II made its first surface journey under steam power, averaging 3.5 knots (4.0 mph) with a top speed of 4.5 knots (5.2 mph). Two months later, on 14 December, Monturiol submerged the vessel and ran his chemical engine, but without attempting to travel anywhere.
On 23 December that same year, Monturiol's company went bankrupt and could attract no more investment.[1] The chief creditor called in his debt, and Monturiol was forced to surrender his sole asset, the Ictineo II. The creditor subsequently sold it on to a businessman, and the authorities, who taxed all ships, issued its new owner with a tax bill. Rather than pay the bill, he dismantled the submarine and sold it for scrap.[2] A replica can be seen at the harbour of Barcelona.
Later life
In 1868 Monturiol returned to political life. A member of the Partido Federal, he was a deputy in the Constituent Assembly of the First Spanish Republic (1873), and shortly afterwards became the director of Fabrica Nacional del Timbre (National Stamp Factory) in Madrid for a few months, where he implemented a process to speed up the manufacturing of adhesive paper. Monturiol's other inventions included a system for copying letters, a continuous printer, a rapid-firing cannon, a system to enhance the performance of steam generators, a stone cutter, a method for preserving meat, and a machine for making cigarettes.[3]
Monturiol died in 1885, in Sant Martí de Provençals, now a suburb of Barcelona.
Legacy
No other submarine employed an anaerobic propulsion system until 1940 when the German Navy tested a system employing the same principles, the Walter turbine, on the experimental V-80 submarine and later on the Type XVII submarines. The problem of air independent propulsion was finally solved with the invention of the first nuclear submarine, the USS Nautilus.
Spain honored Monturiol on a postage stamp in 1987 (purportedly his death centenary; the reason for the discrepancy is unclear).[4]
Notes
- ^ Stewart, Matthew (2003). Monturiol's Dream: The Extraordinary Story of the Submarine Inventor Who Wanted to Save the World. Profile Books Ltd.. ISBN 1861974701.
- ^ Cindy Lee Van Dover. A Utopian's Submarine. Retrieved on 2008-08-01
- ^ "Monturiol Estarriol, Narciso". Oficina Española de Patentes y Marcas. http://historico.oepm.es/museovirtual/gi_plantilla.asp?acc=1&idioma=en&xml=Monturiol%20Estarriol,%20Narciso.xml.
- ^ "Timbre 1516966: Narciso Monturiol". Le Marché du Timbre. http://www.lemarchedutimbre.com/fiche_timbre.php?id_timbre=1516966.
he had two monuments: one in Barcelona(Avinguda diagonal-carrer girona) and other in the end of the "la Rambla" of Figueres, his natal city (where is more knowed other Figuerenc,Salvador Dali)
References
- Stewart, Matthew (2003). Monturiol's Dream: The Extraordinary Story of the Submarine Inventor Who Wanted to Save the World. Profile Books Ltd.. ISBN 1861974701.
- Editorial Ramón Sopena; Diccionario Enciclopédico Ilustrado 1962