Whatsit Wednesday: Submarine

Many people don’t know that a good bit of the Netherlands is below sea level. “Nether” land is the land that is below or down or under. So the Dutch have always had a back for dealing with water. Dikes are a common thing in the landscape. Windmills were used to pump water out of areas, leaving land that could be used for housing and agriculture. And the Dutch navy was a thing to be feared in its day. 

Cornelius Drebbel was a Dutch engineer and inventor in the 17th century. He must not have been content with conquering water in all the normal ways that the Dutch had done, because he invented the first operational submarine - in 1620. Born in Alkmaar (where the cheese market courts tourists still today) he went to school in Haarlem where he learned engraving and was interested in alchemy. 

He first worked as an engraver and mapmaker, but this didn’t bring in enough money. At the end of the 16th century he patented  a sort of perpetual clockwork and later made a sort of magic lantern. He seemed to be a man of all trades who had an interest in many things. 

At the beginning of the 17th century he and his family moved to England, probably at the invitation of King James (of the Bible). Drebbel was accomplished in glass grinding and may have been the one, later, who taught Christiaan Huygens who was an astronomer and mathematician. It was while he was in England that he developed the submarine and worked on torpedoes and naval mines. 

Drebbel also developed a solar energy system, air conditioning and the predecessors of the barometer and thermometer. Then he developed harpsichords that played using solar energy. As mentioned, he had interests and capabilities in many fields. 

The submarine he developed for the Royal Navy (of England) in 1620 was a wooden frame covered by leather. His 3rd attempt or model could carry 16 passengers and stayed submerged for 3 hours. This model was demonstrated to King James I and could travel from Westminster to Greenwich and back. Drebbel even took King James in the submarine, making King James the first monarch to travel underwater. Still, the navy didn’t consider the contraption useful enough.