Interesting old invention.
Imagine being able to bore a hole in the sea, anywhere at will, to rescue the crew of a sunken submarine or to hunt undersea treasure!
That is the feat designed to be accomplished by an amazing ‘whirlpool tube’ upon which a patent has just been granted to Edward A. Adler, of the General Electric Company. Consisting of a telescopic tube open at top and bottom, and a set of motor-driven paddles rotating at high speed, it operates upon the same principle that forms a hole in the water of your bathtub when the stopper is pulled.
When the tube is lowered into the sea through a well in a salvage barge and the motor is started, Adler maintains, the entire column of water will be set whirling. Its own centrifugal force will draw the water to the sides of the tube, leaving a hole straight down the center. A salvager may descend a ladder through the hole, surrounded by churning water, without getting wet, and under normal atmospheric pressure. There will be no need of a diving suit.
I’m guessing that it didn’t work as planned, or we’d be using them.
This is a job for the MYTHBUSTERS !
Squink
April 28, 2007, 10:36pm
3
William Pye’s Charybdis sculpture shows how narrow the air path becomes at depth ( video here ) I think if the vortex got much longer you’d see massive instability in the position of the air column; with the air channel writhing up against the sides of the container. This would be unhealthy for Q.E.D., or whomever Mythbusters sends to the bottom of the sea.