Torpedo tube
A torpedo tube is a cylinder shaped device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, deck-mounted units installed aboard surface vessels. Deck-mounted torpedo launchers are designed for a specific type of torpedo, while submarine torpedo tubes are general-purpose launchers, are also capable of deploying mines and cruise missiles. Most modern launchers are standardised on a 12.75-inch diameter for light torpedoes or a 21-inch diameter for heavy torpedoes, although other sizes of torpedo tube have been used: see Torpedo classes and diameters. A submarine torpedo tube is a more complex mechanism than a torpedo tube on a surface ship, because the tube has to accomplish the function of moving the torpedo from the normal atmospheric pressure within the submarine into the sea at the ambient pressure of the water around the submarine, thus a submarine torpedo tube operates on the principle of an airlock. The diagram on the right illustrates the operation of a submarine torpedo tube.
The diagram does show the working of a submarine torpedo launch. A torpedo tube has a considerable number of interlocks for safety reasons. For example, an interlock prevents the breech muzzle door from opening at the same time; the submarine torpedo launch sequence is, in simplified form: Open the breech door in the torpedo room. Load the torpedo into the tube. Hook up the wire-guide connection and the torpedo power cable. Shut and lock the breech door. Turn on power to the torpedo. A minimum amount of time is required for torpedo warmup. Fire control programs are uploaded to the torpedo. Flood the torpedo tube; this may be done manually or automatically, from sea or from tanks, depending on the class of submarine. The tube must be vented during this process to allow for complete filling and eliminate air pockets which could escape to the surface or cause damage when firing. Open the equalizing valve to equalize pressure in the tube with ambient sea pressure. Open the muzzle door. If the tube is set up for Impulse Mode the slide valve will open with the muzzle door.
If Swim Out Mode is selected, the slide valve remains closed. The slide valve allows water from the ejection pump to enter the tube; when the launch command is given and all interlocks are satisfied, the water ram operates, thrusting a large volume of water into the tube at high pressure, which ejects the torpedo from the tube with considerable force. Modern torpedoes have a safety mechanism that prevents activation of the torpedo unless the torpedo senses the required amount of G-force; the power cable is severed at launch. However, if a guidance wire is used, it remains connected through a drum of wire in the tube. Torpedo propulsion systems vary but electric torpedoes swim out of the tube on their own and are of a smaller diameter. 21" weapons with fuel-burning engines start outside the tube. Once outside the tube the torpedo begins its run toward the target as programmed by the fire control system. Attack functions are programmed but with wire guided weapons, certain functions can be controlled from the ship.
For wire-guided torpedoes, the muzzle door must remain open because the guidance wire is still connected to the inside of the breech door to receive commands from the submarine's fire-control system. A wire cutter on the inside of the breech door is activated to release the wire and its protective cable; these are drawn clear of the ship prior to shutting the muzzle door. The drain cycle is a reverse of the flood cycle. Water can be moved as necessary; the tube must be vented to drain the tube since it is by gravity. Open the breech door and remove the remnants of the torpedo power cable and the guidance wire basket; the tube must be wiped dry to prevent a buildup of slime. This process is called "diving the tube" and tradition dictates that "ye who shoots, dives". Shut and lock the breech door. Spare torpedoes are stored behind the tube in racks. Speed is a desirable feature of a torpedo loading system. There are various manual and hydraulic handling systems for loading torpedoes into the tubes. Prior to the Ohio class, US SSBNs utilized manual block and tackle which took about 15 minutes to load a tube.
SSNs prior to the Seawolf class used a hydraulic system, much faster and safer in conditions where the ship needed to maneuver. The German Type 212 submarine uses a new development of the water ram expulsion system, which ejects the torpedo with water pressure to avoid acoustic detection. List of torpedoes by diameter The Fleet Type Submarine Online 21-Inch Submerged Torpedo Tubes United States Navy Restricted Ordnance Pamphlet 1085, June 1944 Torpedo tubes of German U-Boats
SM UC-1
SM UC-1 was a German Type UC I minelayer submarine or U-boat in the German Imperial Navy during World War I. The U-boat had been ordered by November 1914 and was launched on 26 April 1915, she was commissioned into the German Imperial Navy on 5 July 1915 as SM UC-1. Mines laid by UC-1 in her 80 patrols were credited with sinking 41 ships. UC-1 disappeared after 18 July 1917. A German Type UC I submarine, UC-1 had a displacement of 168 tonnes when at the surface and 183 tonnes while submerged, she had a length overall of 33.99 m, a beam of 3.15 m, a draught of 3.04 m. The submarine was powered by one Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft six-cylinder, four-stroke diesel engine producing 90 metric horsepower, an electric motor producing 175 metric horsepower, one propeller shaft, she was capable of operating at a depth of 50 metres. The submarine had a maximum surface speed of 6.20 knots and a maximum submerged speed of 5.22 knots. When submerged, she could operate for 50 nautical miles at 4 knots. UC-1 was fitted with six 100 centimetres mine tubes, twelve UC 120 mines, one 8 millimetres machine gun.
She was built by AG Vulcan Stettin and her complement was fourteen crew members. Bendert, Harald. Die UC-Boote der Kaiserlichen Marine 1914-1918. Minenkrieg mit U-Booten. Hamburg, Bonn: Mittler. ISBN 3-8132-0758-7. Gröner, Erich. U-boats and Mine Warfare Vessels. German Warships 1815–1945. 2. Translated by Thomas, Keith. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-593-4. Gardiner, Robert, ed.. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1906–1921. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-907-8. OCLC 12119866. CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list Tarrant, V. E.. The U-Boat Offensive: 1914–1945. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-764-7. OCLC 20338385
Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft
Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft was a German engineering company and automobile manufacturer, in operation from 1890 until 1926. Founded by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach, it was based first in Cannstatt. Daimler died in 1900, their business moved in 1903 to Stuttgart-Untertürkheim after the original factory was destroyed by fire, again to Berlin in 1922. Other factories were located in Sindelfingen; the enterprise began to produce petrol engines but after the success of a small number of race cars built on contract by Wilhelm Maybach for Emil Jellinek, it began to produce the Mercedes model of 1902. After this automobile production expanded to become DMG's main product, it built several models; because of the post World War One German economic crisis, DMG merged in 1926 with Benz & Cie. becoming Daimler-Benz and adopting Mercedes-Benz as its automobile trademark. A further merger occurred in 1998 with Chrysler to become DaimlerChrysler; the name was changed to just Daimler AG in 2007 when Chrysler was sold.
By 1882 both Daimler and Maybach had left Nikolaus Otto's Deutz AG Gasmotorenfabrik. In 1890 they founded Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, its purpose was the construction of small, high speed engines they had developed based on the same stationary engine technology. DMG thus grew out of an extension of the independent businesses of Daimler and Maybach, who would revolutionize the world with their inventions for the automobile of a four-stroke petrol engine, so on, they would manufacture small internal combustion engines suitable for use on land, in the air. On July 5, 1887, Daimler purchased a property in Seelberg Hill owned by Zeitler & Missel who had used it as a precious metal foundry; the site covered 2,903 square meters, cost 30,200 Goldmark, from it they produced engines for their successful Neckar motorboat. They sold licences for others to make their engine products and Seelberg became a centre of the growing automobile industry. Daimler ran into financial problems because sales were not high enough and the licences didn't yield significant profit.
An agreement was reached with the financiers Max Von Duttenhofer and William Lorenz, both of whom were munitions manufacturers, along with the influential banker Kilian von Steiner, who owned an investment bank, to convert the private business to a public corporation in 1890. Not believing in automobile production the financiers expanded the stationary engine business, as they were selling well, considered a merger with Otto's Deutz-AG. Daimler and Maybach continued to advocate car manufacturing and as a result left DMG for a short period. Daimler's friend, Frederick Simms, persuaded the financiers to take Gottflieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach back into faltering DMG in early 1896, their business was re-merged with DMG's. Daimler was appointed General Inspector, Maybach chief Technical Director and Simms a director of DMG. In 1892, Maybach designed an inline two-cylinder engine fitted with a new carburetor. Following the withdrawal of Gottlieb Daimler and Maybach to their own business to concentrate on cars, the enterprise had been close to a crisis but stabilised itself, selling mobile and stationary engines through a number of retailers around the world, from New York City to Moscow.
The first Daimler car, a singularly inelegant model, appeared in 1892, followed in 1895 by a two-cylinder vis á vis and, in 1897, DMG's first front-engined model, a Phönix-engined four-seat open tourer. In 1900, Gottlieb Daimler died. DMG's successful Mercedes models based upon race cars designed by Wilhelm Maybach to the specifications of Emil Jellinek changed the board's outlook in favour of the automobile. Maybach continued as designer for a while, but quit in 1909 and was replaced by Gottlieb's son, Paul. DMG's automobile sales took off with the first Daimler-Mercedes engine designed by Maybach placed into several race cars of 1900 built for Emil Jellinek; that race car was referred to as the Mercedes 35 hp. Production capacity was extended to Untertürkheim. In 1902, DMG produce the first Mercedes models, led by the 60, the most famous early model, adopted Mercedes as its automobile trademark. In part due to the model 60's success, the number of DMG employees went from 821 to 2,200. 1906 to 1913 were further expansion years, with the creation of new capacity reducing the number of external suppliers.
Increased mechanization took the annual productivity from 0.7 cars per worker, to 10. In 1911, shares of DMG were listed on the Stuttgart stock exchange. On October 2, 1902, DMG opened a new works in the mountainous region to the south of Berlin, its scope was limited to motorboat and marine engines. It expanded into making trucks and fire trucks; the region
Coastal submarine
A coastal submarine or littoral submarine is a small, maneuverable submarine with shallow draft well suited to navigation of coastal channels and harbors. Although size is not defined, coastal submarines are larger than midget submarines, but smaller than sea-going submarines designed for longer patrols on the open ocean. Space limitations aboard coastal submarines restrict fuel availability for distant travel, food availability for extended patrol duration, number of weapons carried. Within those limitations, coastal submarines may be able to reach areas inaccessible to larger submarines, be more difficult to detect; the earliest submarines were coastal submarines, but as modern submarine tactics developed during World War I, the advantages of rapid construction and portability encouraged development of UB torpedo launching, UC minelaying coastal submarines in 1915 to operate in the English Channel. These coastal submarines displaced only 15 to 20 percent the weight of a contemporary conventional U-boat, could be built in one-quarter the time it took to complete a conventional U-boat, be delivered on railway wagons to operating bases in Belgium.
Improved versions of UB and UC coastal submarines were devised. Total production of German coastal submarines during World War I was 136 type UB and 95 type UC. German submarine construction between the world wars began in 1935 with the building of 24 Type II coastal submarines; these coastal U-boats, with another eight completed prior to hostilities, made North Sea combat patrols during the early months of World War II and served in the Baltic Sea training crews to operate ocean-going submarines. The 30th U-boat Flotilla of six Type II U-boats was transported overland on the Autobahn and down the Danube for combat patrols in the Black Sea until September 1944. German Type UB I submarine German Type UB II submarine German Type UB III submarine German Type UC I submarine German Type UC II submarine German Type UC III submarine British H-class submarine German Type II submarine Mackerel-class submarine German Type XVII submarine Type XXIII submarine Ha-201-class submarine Type 201 submarine Type 205 submarine Type 206 submarine Sang-O-class submarine Gotland-class submarine Ghadir-class submarine Andrasta-class submarine List of submarine operators List of submarine classes in service Gray, Edwyn A..
The Killing Time. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Lenton, H. T.. German Warships of the Second World War. New York: Arco Publishing Company. ISBN 0-668-04037-8. Tarrant, V. E.. The U-Boat Offensive 1914-1945. London: Cassell & Company. ISBN 1-85409-520-X
AG Vulcan Stettin
Aktien-Gesellschaft Vulcan Stettin was a German shipbuilding and locomotive building company. Founded in 1851, it was located near the former eastern German city of Stettin, today Polish Szczecin; because of the limited facilities in Stettin, in 1907 an additional yard was built in Hamburg. The now named Vulcan-Werke Hamburg und Stettin Actiengesellschaft constructed some of the most famous civilian German ships and it played a significant role in both World Wars, building warships for the Kaiserliche Marine and the Kriegsmarine later. Both yards became members of the Deschimag in the 1920s; the Stettin shipyard was closed in 1928, opened again in 1939. During World War II it exploited slave workers, after the war, was taken over by the Polish government, while the Hamburg yard was sold to Howaldtswerke AG in 1930 and the Locomotive Department was sold to Borsig in Berlin A. G. Vulcan Stettin was founded 1851 as Schiffswerft und Maschinenfabrik Früchtenicht & Brock by the two young engineers Franz F. D. Früchtenicht and Franz W. Brock in the little village Bredow, which became suburb of the eastern German city of Stettin.
Its first ship was the small iron paddle steamer, named Die Dievenow for the service between the cities of Stettin and Swinemünde. Several small vessels followed; when the yard went into financial problems, in 1857 the company was taken over by some entrepreneurs and politicians from Stettin and Berlin which founded the new company Stettiner Maschinenbau Actien-Gesellschaft Vulcan. Ship construction was continued, but the solution of the financial trouble was expected by additionally constructing locomotives. A subsidiary company was founded, called Abteilung Locomotivbau in Bredow bei Stettin. In 1859 the first locomotive was delivered. In the future larger and larger ships were built, the facilities in Stettin could no longer sustain the scale of the operations; the yard built the Kaiser-class ocean liners. Thus a new shipyard was built in Hamburg between 1907 and 1909. From 1911, it was named Vulcan-Werke Hamburg und Stettin Actiengesellschaft; the Hamburg yard was the scene of a week-long strike in 1918, only brought to a close through the reading of the War Clauses.
Gustav Bauer, director of the marine engine section, supervised the work of Hermann Föttinger on the Fottinger hydraulic transmitter known as Vulcan Coupling and Vulcan Drive or fluid coupling. In 1924, Vulcan's Hermann Rieseler invented the first automatic transmission, which had two-speed planetary gearbox, torque converter, lockup clutch; the original coupling further developed in collaboration with Harold Sinclair of Fluidrive Engineering of Isleworth for Daimler of Coventry and matched with a manually controlled epicyclic gearbox went into production in England in 1929. In 1928 Vulcan Stettin became bankrupt and sold its Hamburg shipyard in 1930; the AG Vulcan Stettin had been closed. 1939 a new company - named Vulcan - was founded on the site of the former Stettin-shipyard. Altogether 34 construction numbers were started in the following years, including 18 type-VII C submarines, but because of the war only few ships could be completed. Among these were two submarines, but only one of them was in service while the second one was destroyed by allied air attacks before.
During the war the yard exploited slave workers and had its own prisoner camp, part of the prisoner population engaged in anti-Nazi resistance sabotaging several constructed ships After World War II the slave workers were freed and the shipyard was taken over by the Polish government and the new Szczecin Shipyard was started at this site. The Szczecin Shipyard named one of its wharfs "Wulkan" and two slipways "Wulkan 1" and "Wulkan Nowa". 1851, Constr. No. 1, Paddle steamer Die Dievenow, first built ship 1879, Russian steamboat Askold for Shipping Company on the Don and Black Seas with their tributaries. After 1886 belonged to Russian Steam Navigation and Trading Company 1880, Corvette Olga 1881–1882, Dingyuan and Zhenyuan for Chinese Navy 1887, Irene-class protected cruiser SMS Irene for Kaiserliche Marine.
Drive shaft
A drive shaft, driving shaft, propeller shaft, or Cardan shaft is a mechanical component for transmitting torque and rotation used to connect other components of a drive train that cannot be connected directly because of distance or the need to allow for relative movement between them. As torque carriers, drive shafts are subject to torsion and shear stress, equivalent to the difference between the input torque and the load, they must therefore be strong enough to bear the stress, while avoiding too much additional weight as that would in turn increase their inertia. To allow for variations in the alignment and distance between the driving and driven components, drive shafts incorporate one or more universal joints, jaw couplings, or rag joints, sometimes a splined joint or prismatic joint; the term drive shaft first appeared during the mid 19th century. In Stover's 1861 patent reissue for a planing and matching machine, the term is used to refer to the belt-driven shaft by which the machine is driven.
The term is not used in his original patent. Another early use of the term occurs in the 1861 patent reissue for the Watkins and Bryson horse-drawn mowing machine. Here, the term refers to the shaft transmitting power from the machine's wheels to the gear train that works the cutting mechanism. In the 1890s, the term began to be used in a manner closer to the modern sense. In 1891, for example, Battles referred to the shaft between the transmission and driving trucks of his Climax locomotive as the drive shaft, Stillman referred to the shaft linking the crankshaft to the rear axle of his shaft-driven bicycle as a drive shaft. In 1899, Bukey used the term to describe the shaft transmitting power from the wheel to the driven machinery by a universal joint in his Horse-Power. In the same year, Clark described his Marine Velocipede using the term to refer to the gear-driven shaft transmitting power through a universal joint to the propeller shaft. Crompton used the term to refer to the shaft between the transmission of his steam-powered Motor Vehicle of 1903 and the driven axle.
The pioneering automobile industry company, was the first to use a drive shaft in a gasoline-powered car. Built in 1901, today this vehicle is in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution. An automobile may use a longitudinal shaft to deliver power from an engine/transmission to the other end of the vehicle before it goes to the wheels. A pair of short drive shafts is used to send power from a central differential, transmission, or transaxle to the wheels. In front-engined, rear-drive vehicles, a longer drive shaft is required to send power the length of the vehicle. Two forms dominate: The torque tube with a single universal joint and the more common Hotchkiss drive with two or more joints; this system became known as Système Panhard after the automobile company Panhard et Levassor patented it. Most of these vehicles have a clutch and gearbox mounted directly on the engine, with a drive shaft leading to a final drive in the rear axle; when the vehicle is stationary, the drive shaft does not rotate.
Some vehicles, seeking improved weight balance between rear, use a rear-mounted transaxle. In some non-Porsche models, this places the clutch and transmission at the rear of the car and the drive shaft between them and the engine. In this case the drive shaft rotates continuously with the engine when the car is stationary and out of gear. However, the Porsche 924/944/928 models have the clutch mounted to the back of the engine in a bell housing and the drive shaft from the clutch output, located inside of a hollow protective torque tube, transfers power to the rear mounted transaxle, thus the Porsche driveshaft only rotates when the rear wheels are turning as the engine-mounted clutch can decouple engine crankshaft rotation from the driveshaft. So for Porsche, when the driver is using the clutch while briskly shifting up or down, the engine can rev with the driver's accelerator pedal input, since with the clutch disengaged, the engine and flywheel inertia is low and is not burdened with the added rotational inertia of the driveshaft.
The Porsche torque tube is solidly fastened to both the engine's bell housing and to the transaxle case, fixing the length and alignment between the bell housing and the transaxle and minimizing rear wheel drive reaction torque from twisting the transaxle in any plane. A drive shaft connecting a rear differential to a rear wheel may be called a half-shaft; the name derives from the fact. Early automobiles used chain drive or belt drive mechanisms rather than a drive shaft; some used electrical motors to transmit power to the wheels. In British English, the term "drive shaft" is restricted to a transverse shaft that transmits power to the wheels the front wheels. A drive shaft connecting the gearbox to a rear differential is called a propeller shaft, or prop-shaft. A prop-shaft assembly consists of a slip joint and one or more universal joints. Where the engine and axles are separated from each other, as on four-wheel drive and rear-wheel drive vehicles, it is the propeller shaft that serves to transmit the drive force generated by the engine to the axles.
Several different types of drive shaft are used in the automotive industry: One-piece drive shaft Two-piece drive shaft Slip-in-tube drive shaftThe slip-in-tube drive shaft is a new type that improves crash safety. It can be compressed to absorb energy in the event of a crash, so is known as a collapsible drive shaft
German Type UC II submarine
Type UC II minelaying submarines were used by the Imperial German Navy during World War I. They displaced 417 tons, carried guns, 7 torpedoes and up to 18 mines; the ships were double-hulled with improved seakeeping compared to the UC I type. If judged only by the numbers of enemy vessels destroyed, the UC II is the most successful submarine design in history: According to modern estimates, they sank more than 1800 enemy vessels. There were 64 Type UC II submarines commissioned into the Imperial German Navy
