Board made in 1885 to the Forty-ninth Congress may be found a selected list of about fifty submarine boats. This list extends over a period of three centuries. It includes no boats which have been projected or described merely, nor even those which have been patented merely, but only such as had been actually built and practically tried up to that date. In the invention of these boats and in experimenting with them have been engaged the citizens of England, France, Holland, Spain, the Scandinavian countries, Italy, Russia and the United States—nearly all of the civilized countries. England has probably accomplished as little in this direction as any nation. France has shown by far the greatest zeal as a nation, and, on the whole, has been the most prolific. But the greatest practical success has been attained undoubtedly in our own country.
It would be a thankless as well as a wearisome task merely to enumerate the vessels of this list, still more so to describe them all, however briefly. Most of them were of ephemeral interest only. But there are some which should be mentioned in any account of submarine navigation, however concise.
Thus, in 1624 a Hollander named Cornelius Van Drebbell constructed a boat which was tried with some success in the Thames at London. James I. is said on one occasion at least to have been a witness of the experiments. But navigation under water in that day was an uncanny thing. Drebbell was regarded first as a magician, then as a madman, and then as an agent of the devil. Meeting no encouragement he died, and his secret died with him. It is curious to notice that Drebbell claimed to have discovered a certain fluid which possessed the power of purifying air vitiated by respiration. He called it 'Quintessence of Air.' From the standpoint of present knowledge this singular name and Drebbell's claim for the liquid are very suggestive. Oxygen was not discovered, as we believe, until a century and a half after Drebbell's time. But oxygen is the life-giving component of air. Moreover, volumetrically oxygen is the 'quintessence'—the fifth part—of air. Is it possible that Drebbell had discovered some liquid which easily disengaged the then unknown oxygen gas and thus was able to restore to vitiated air that principle of which respiration deprives it? Undoubtedly not. It is much more likely that he possessed a solution capable of absorbing the carbonic acid gas which is produced by respiration, and that the name given it was entirely fanciful and without special significance. But even if Drebbell's claim was a piece of pure quackery, with no substantial basis at all, it is nevertheless not without interest, for it shows, as we might have anticipated, that the problem of ventilation, one of the most important with which the inventors of submarines have had to deal, was at least appreciated by Drebbell the pioneer.
