People have always wanted to know about their future. That is why fortune-tellers and psychics are not translated in the world, who try to predict it by hand, playing cards and crystal ball. How correct their predictions are is a matter of their conscience. Scientists (and journalists!) Do things differently. They take a variety of variables that they know today. Roughly imagine the dynamics of the process of their changes. And … they transfer these variables, having adjusted accordingly, into the future. For example, Jules Verne made many very accurate predictions. But the fact is that what he predicted was needed by people. And so it appeared. Even people flew to the moon, that's just not at all the way he wrote about it.
One of the projects of the "submarine of the future" from the magazine "Tekhnika-youth" in 1941.
In the past, the Tekhnika Molodoi magazine often wrote about the prospects for the development of science and technology. For example, about what the submarines will be like in the future. One of these articles appeared in this magazine at the end of the 30s, and … let's get acquainted with how the foresight of its author came true.
The author A. Tarasov begins his story about what the future submarines should look like with reference to the disasters that have just happened with the American submarine Squalus, the English Tethys and the French Phoenix, whose crews could not be saved.
But this is truly the legendary fantastic Soviet submarine "Pioneer" from the movie "The Secret of Two Oceans", filmed in 1955 based on the novel of the same name by G. Adamov, written by him in 1938.
That is, in his opinion, it was necessary to start improving submarines with the creation of new, and much more reliable means of rescue. In his opinion, it should have been a special submarine, the presence of which greatly facilitated and accelerated rescue operations. Seems like a good idea. But why did no one implement it? Yes, simply because it is very expensive to keep such a vessel “under steam” for years. And, besides, its speed is still limited, and it may simply not make it to the place of the tragedy, which can be anywhere!
"Pioneer" on the surface of the sea.
Further, the author wrote about such a possible use of the submarine of the future, such as conducting reconnaissance of the ice and using it as an icebreaker (!), Paving the way for caravans of ships through the ice on the Northern Sea Route. They say that the idea of studying the Arctic using a submarine is not at all new; it was proposed by the American polar explorer Hubert Wilkins. He tried to get to the North Pole in the submarine "Nautilus", but he did not succeed due to breakage of the depth rudders.
In any case, it was obvious to the author that the submarines of his day did not meet the diverse tasks that faced them, and therefore a new vessel was needed to cope with them all.
And this is what he proposed: a universal submarine, which in the future was supposed to solve almost all the tasks he named. Therefore, first of all, it must have a streamlined body capable of providing a high travel speed, both on the surface and under water. But … then for some reason he needed "skis" installed on the deck and facing upward with runners, and even on shock absorbers! But so that the boat does not hit the ice from below - that's why, and also, so that there, under water, she would slide on it on these skis!
The commander of the "Pioneer" - well, just a "charm"!
However, the skis sticking out above the deck are not all. Then the author came up with four retractable hatches, and for some reason not round, but elliptical. But in fact, these are not hatches, but autogenous ice cutters! A strong flame beats up from them, and … it melts the ice, and the boat floats up! How, where and how much fuel will be stored for these cutters, the author, of course, does not indicate. Nor does he care about the consumption of this fuel for melting ice. But he did not forget to write that all these four "apparatus" are advanced by a special hydraulic device. "Special", that is, well-known specialists. Well, and it makes no sense for him to know what these devices are and to describe them, of course.
Further on deck, he came up with another, now "large hatch", also in the form of an ellipse, leading inside the boat to the "hydraulic chamber". From this chamber, if necessary, some "special rescue vehicles" should be thrown out, which, together with people, independently float to the surface. This is a kind of "underwater parachute". And also in the form of an ellipsoid. Something the ellipse, apparently, struck the imagination of the author, and maybe the word "beautiful", but only something around it has ellipses. The device fits two people. That is, inside the boat they are like eggs in fish. But technically simpler - and time has shown that it is so, that it is more technologically advanced to make one large pop-up camera than many. The material is aluminum, although steel can withstand the pressure at depth best of all, but the funniest thing is that people in these capsules are "tied with their belts to the walls", because, as they rise to the surface, "the apparatus can turn over." But their center of gravity is nevertheless located so that the hatch is always on top to get out of the "apparatus" after lifting.
Next to the hatch of the hydraulic chamber, on the same deck, there is also an entrance hatch - indeed, the author did not have a deck, but solid "hatches", but for some reason none of the editors of "TM" for some reason then did not noticed. Further on the boat there are floodlights and portholes installed all around, but what about without them? After all, everyone read about Captain Nemo's Nautilus at that time. "The beams from several searchlights can cross and give intense lighting in the desired direction" - that is, all this "lighting" can also be turned, and - how in this case can we talk about some kind of streamlining and reliability of this boat? Around "skis", hatches, turning searchlights, and on the deck there are also as many as three periscopes.
On the bottom of the boat, the author proposes to arrange a redan - a ledge that allows her to develop high speed! Yes, of course, on the surface of the water, red boats differ in their speed data. But this is not a boat. However, the author sees a way out in the installation of four aircraft engines on the bifurcated stern of the ship, which turn this ship into a high-speed glider. And before diving, they are removed in two hatches at the stern. I just want to ask if there is something left there besides hatches or not, because this boat also has two hatches on the sides. One for the divers' exit and the other for the entry! And in the bottom there are two retractable "cylindrical towers". They press the boat tightly against the hull of the sunken submarine, autogenously burns out two holes in it and rescues its crew through them.
Compared to all other settings, the most impressive in the film are the crew suits …
Well, inside this "universal boat" one could even dance. In the bow are the control room of the commander and navigator, the research laboratory, then the dining room, then the entrance diving chamber and even ballast tanks for the immersion and lifting of this "super ship".
Further, it houses the notorious "hydraulic chamber", autogenous devices for cutting ice, then a chamber for the exit of divers, divided by sluices - partitions - into compartments so that in each subsequent pressure increases. This is how it is proposed to fight decompression sickness.
In the novel, the boat's crew fights against the Japanese imperialists and even sinks the Japanese cruiser Izumo with an ultrasonic cannon! In the movie, the positive hero, pursuing the vile spy Gluzsky, who has beaten his brother (!), Ends up in a secret torpedo base of an unnamed enemy, the entrance to which opens with the password "17".
And here, in the center of the ship, it is no longer possible to understand where the radio room, the crew quarters and the ladder to the deck are located. The engine room is, of course, in the stern, but there are also aircraft engines, an air purification chamber and lower "retractable towers".
That is, not a boat turned out in the end, but … a continuous "sieve" or hatches. However, the author took credit for many of them, they say, there are many hatches - in the event of an accident, the crew can be easily evacuated and will be able to rise to the surface. That is, the "universal submarine" invented in the article was equipped with an impressive set of all kinds of devices to perform a wide range of tasks.
This base is equipped, well, not worse than that of the aliens. Also … fantasy beyond measure!
And now let's see what it was - fantasy as the greatest value or empty fantasy, like take more and make it "wider". Unfortunately, the latter. And it is a pity that such technically illiterate materials, even at that time, appeared in TM quite often.
However, it is clear that it is very difficult to rise above your time, to create in your imagination a certain new reality and to come up with technical innovations for it. But look at another similar “boat” - the submarine “Pioneer” from the science fiction novel “The Mystery of Two Oceans” written by Grigory Adamov in 1938. For all the fantastic nature of the Pioneer, such absurdities as hatches at every step and aircraft engines at the stern are still absent on it …
