25 June 1945 Evening News of the Tonawandas North Tonawanda, NY BEGIN Simon Lake Dead, Inventor of Sub Bridgeport, Con (UP) - Funeral services will be held at 2 p. m. tomorrow for Simon Lake, 78, father of the modern submarine, who died Saturday night at St. Vincent's hospital. Lake, in ill-health for two years, died of a heart ailment. Thomas A. Edison Lake, his son, said his father appeared to be in an improved condition shortly before his death. Lake's invention of the even-keel submarine led to rapid development of undersea craft. He constructed his first submarine in 1894. When American authorities took no action on his offer to sell the Protector in 1901, Lake took that ship to Russia. He then spent several years abroad. Fifty-five of the submarines he built during the First World War were bought by the United States. The others were sold to other governments. END findagrave.com ... BEGIN Simon Lake Birth 4 Sep 1866 Pleasantville, Atlantic County, New Jersey, USA Death 24 Jun 1945 (aged 78) Bridgeport, Fairfield County, Connecticut, USA Burial Kings Highway Cemetery Milford, New Haven County, Connecticut, USA Show Map Memorial ID 14482765 · View Source Marine engineer and inventor, numerous patents for submarines. He is considered "The Father of the Modern Submarine." In 1894 he demonstrated his first submarine, 'Argonaut, Jr.', in the waters of Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey. In 1898, a much improved version, 'The Argonaut', was the first submarine to operate on the open seas during a trip from Norfolk, Virginia to New York City, New York. Among his related inventions are the "omniscope" (forerunner of the submarine periscope), conning tower, twin pressure hulls, ballast tanks for producing negative and positive bouyancy for dive control as opposed to Holland's use of neutral bouyancy and diving planes and constant motion, the control room, the escape trunk, hydroplanes and more. Initially failing to interest the U.S. Navy, he sold his new boat 'The Protector' to the Russian Navy. In 1908 the US Navy procured the USS SEAL. Following WWI, the Lake Torpedo Boat Company was forced to close when the War Department took control of submarine construction. A posthumous honor was accorded him in 1964 when the United States Navy commissioned the USS SIMON LAKE(AS-33), a submarine tender. He was also the subject of a postage stamp for the Federated States of Micronesia. Bio by: Mark Maxwell Family Members Spouse Margaret Vogel Lake 1873–1956 Children Thomas A.E. Lake 1892–1979 END https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Lake BEGIN Simon Lake Born September 4, 1866 Pleasantville, New Jersey Died June 23, 1945 (aged 78) Milford, Connecticut Nationality American Occupation Engineer Spouse(s) Margaret Vogel (1890-?) Children Miriam Catherine Lake ( May 2nd, 1891-?) Thomas Alva Edison Lake ( Nov. 8th, 1892-?) Margaret Vogel Lake (Jan. 24th, 1895-?) Parent(s) Christopher J. Lake Engineering career Projects Submarines Single screw steering gear automatic soldering machine for tin cans Significant advance Naval design Simon Lake (September 4, 1866 – June 23, 1945) was a Quaker American mechanical engineer and naval architect who obtained over two hundred patents for advances in naval design and competed with John Philip Holland to build the first submarines for the United States Navy. Contents 1 Biography 2 Legacy 3 References 4 Bibliography 5 External links Biography Born in Pleasantville, New Jersey on September 4, 1866.[1] Lake joined his father's foundry business after attending public schools in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Lake had a strong interest in undersea travel. He built his first submarine, Argonaut Junior, in 1894 in response to an 1893 request from the US Navy for a submarine torpedo boat. In 1898 he followed up with the 36-foot Argonaut 1, which he sailed from Norfolk, Virginia for a thousand miles to Sandy Hook, New Jersey, arriving in November, 1898.[2] As a result of lessons learned on that journey, he rebuilt it into the 60-foot Argonaut 2. Neither Argonaut nor Lake's following submarine, Protector, built in 1901, were accepted by the Navy. Protector was the first submarine to have diving planes mounted forward of the conning tower and a flat keel. Four diving planes allowed Protector to maintain depth without changing ballast tank levels, and to dive level without a down-angle. Level diving was a feature of several subsequent Lake designs, notably the first three US G-class submarines. Protector also had a lock-out chamber for divers to leave the submarine. Lake, lacking Holland's financial backing, was unable to continue building submarines in the United States. He sold Protector to Imperial Russia in 1904 as the Osetr and spent the next seven years in Europe designing submarines for the Austro-Hungarian Navy, Germany's Kaiserliche Marine, and the Imperial Russian Navy (Osetr- and Kaiman-class submarines). He lived in Milford, Connecticut from 1907 until his death in 1945. In 1912, he founded the Lake Torpedo Boat Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut, which built 26 submarines for the United States Navy during and after World War I. Lake's first submarine for the U.S. Navy, USS G-1 (SS-19½), set a depth record of 256 feet (78 metres) in November 1912. In 1922 the United States and other countries signed treaties limiting the size of their navies. This led to financial difficulties which forced the Lake Torpedo Boat Company to close in the mid-1920s. Following the company's closure, Lake continued designing maritime salvage systems including obtaining permission to partially salvage the Lusitania off the south Irish coast and then later a failed attempt to salvage gold from HMS Hussar, a British frigate that sank in 1780 in New York City's East River with his submarine, the Explorer.[3] Lake redesigned the former USS O-12 (SS-73) as the Arctic exploration submarine Nautilus, used by Sir Hubert Wilkins in a 1931 expedition. He also advised the United States Navy on submarine technology and maritime salvage during World War II. He died on June 23, 1945. Legacy By his death, Lake had witnessed the submarine's arrival as a front-line weapon in the US Navy. The US Navy built a class of two submarine tenders named in his honor, the Simon Lake class; USS Simon Lake (AS-33) was in service between 1964 and 1999. In 1989 Simon Lake was inducted into the Toms River (New Jersey) Schools' Hall of Fame. A Milford, Connecticut grammar school named in his honor closed in June 2010.[4] Lakes bay in West Atlantic City, New Jersey is where he tested prototypes. An Atlantic Highlands, NJ street, Simon Lake Drive, at the marina was named in his honor.[5] References Famous People in Atlantic County History, Atlantic County, New Jersey. Accessed March 31, 2008. Poluhowich, John (1999). Argonaut: The Submarine Legacy of Simon Lake. Texas A&M University Press. pp. 52–59. ISBN 0890968942. "Midget Sub To Seek Riches On Sea Floor" Popular Science, March 1933 http://www.nhregister.com/general-news/20100426/milfords-simon-lake-school-to-close Atlantic Highlands By Randall Gabrielan Bibliography Lake, Simon (1918). The Submarine in War and Peace. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co. John J. Poluhowich, Argonaut: The Submarine Legacy of Simon Lake. Texas A&M University Press, November 1999, ISBN 0-89096-894-2 External links "Submarine - The Autobiography of Simon Lake" pdf file "Lusitania Treasures To Be Raised" Popular Mechanics, February 1932 "Pumping Cargo From Sunken Ships - Submarine Builder Designs Unique Vessel For Bulk Salvage Work" Popular Science, December 1934 "Baby Submarine On Wheels To Seek Treasure" Popular Mechanics March 1933 "Hard-Boil for Treasure" Popular Mechanics, November 1930, pp 770-774 Simon Lake Website Whitman, Edward C., "The Submarine Heritage of Simon Lake", Undersea Warfare, Fall 2002, Issue 16 Edit links This page was last edited on 27 December 2018, at 16:48 (UTC). END