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Tingling Sensation. Under Way's guidance, and with about $1,600 worth of storage batteries, the electromagnetic coil, aluminum tubing and fiberglass reinforced plastic paid for by the university, the engineering seniors completed the EM51 during the spring semester. They successfully demonstrated it for the first time this June. Subsequent experiments uncovered a few problems, though none seem impossible of solving in the construction of a full-scale sub. Electric current passing through the water between the electrodes produces some electrolysis; molecules of water break down into hydrogen and oxygen, which rises to the surface in the form of gas bubbles that could signal the sub's presence below. Swimmers who guided the sub felt a tingling but harmless sensation caused by the electric current. "It is almost exhilarating," explains Way.
Though the electromagnetic submarine's silent, virtually undetectable operation makes it of prime interest to the Navy, Way is convinced that its greatest future lies in the development of super submarine tankers. Since the efficiency of an electromagnetic submarine increases with size, the visionary engineer is already looking forward to the day when 100,000-ton monsters will move silently beneath the surface of the world's oceans, carrying vast quantities of crude oil and gasoline safe from the storm-tossed water above them.