Science: Underwater Torch

Still vivid in the memory of most Americans is the tragic 1927 sinking of the submarine 54, whose trapped crew died while a rescue fleet vainly tried to raise the ship in no feet of water off Provincetown. Rescue might have been possible if there had been some quick way to cut an escape hatch in the ship. Now such a device has at last been developed. For more than a year the U.S. Navy has been performing wonders in rescue and harbor-clearing work by means of an amazing underwater torch which cuts thick steel plate like cheese.

The tool (until now a military secret) is a tube which looks like a pea shooter. It has a waterproofed electrode which heats metal electrically to 6,000-10,000° F., and a jet which shoots a stream of pure oxygen, slicing rapidly through the molten plate.

It can cut half-inch steel plate 50 feet under water at a rate of 52 inches a minute. Developed by the Navy and the Metal and Thermit Corp., it is an under water adaptation of a device known as the “arc-oxygen electrode.” Underwater, it is a vast improvement on the oxyacetylene torch, which works only down to 15 feet.