John Philip Holland and the Invention of the Attack Submarine
April 10, 2017
In this delightful biography, John Holland (1841–1914), the little-remembered inventor of the military submarine, receives a well-deserved publicity boost from historian Goldstone (Drive! Henry Ford, George Selden, and the Race to Invent the Auto Age). Holland’s lifetime obsession did not interest the U.S. Navy, but it intrigued Irish revolutionaries who financed his 1881 vessel, the Fenian Ram, which could cruise underwater and fire a torpedo. Internecine quarrels dried up support, however, and Holland abandoned the project. In 1895, the hidebound Navy finally awarded him a contract but added impossible design requirements to the propulsion specifications. Desperate, Holland was able to scrape together funding to build the submarine he wanted. Launched in 1898, this model worked beautifully, but Navy officials rejected it for obscure bureaucratic reasons. Holland was near bankruptcy when an entrepreneur, Isaac Rice, offered help. Rice’s money and political influence turned the tide but not before Holland had signed over his patents. By the time the Navy commissioned the USS Holland, in 1900, its inventor was marginalized and he eventually died in obscurity. The book is bogged down by digressions into Holland’s political struggles, but Goldstone revives the reputation of a great American inventor who has become the answer to a trivia question. Agent: Michael Carlisle, InkWell.
April 15, 2017
A history of the attack submarine and its inventor, who "would never know that he had helped create one of the defining killing machines of two world wars."Historians pay great attention to humankind's yearning to fly. The desire to travel underwater turns out to be equally fascinating, with many difficult technical barriers and a fiercely single-minded inventor, John Philip Holland (1841-1914), who is now mostly forgotten. The story is well-told by historian and journalist Goldstone (Drive: Henry Ford, George Selden, and the Race to Invent the Auto Age, 2016). Holland arrived from Ireland in 1873, already fascinated by submarines. Faced with an indifferent U.S. Navy, he struggled for more than two decades to obtain financing. No sooner had he succeeded when Navy "experts" demanded changes that converted his plans to a lugubrious Rube Goldberg-esque contraption. Holland essentially abandoned it and built the submarine he had designed. Tested in 1898, it thrilled observers, including Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt, who urged superiors to buy the machine. They refused. His money exhausted, Holland had no choice but to accept the offer of a rescuer, Isaac Rice, wealthy owner of many businesses, including some that supplied Holland. In exchange for financial aid, Holland turned over his patents and control of the company. Rice had no interest in sharing power, and Holland resigned after several frustrating years. Litigation prevented him from starting a rival company, and his death after 10 years of retirement went unnoticed. Rice's capital and connections worked their magic on the Navy, which bought its first submarine, the USS Holland, in 1900 but remained lukewarm about buying more. Rice eventually struck it rich but not until World War I broke out. A well-crafted combination of technology history, tortuous military politics, and the biography of a shamefully neglected American inventor.
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May 15, 2017
Historian Goldstone (Drive!) adds to his series of works on 19th- and 20th-century innovators by relaying how Irish engineer John Philip Holland (1841-1914) developed the first submarine commissioned by the U.S. Navy. The central story here is the race between Holland and mechanical engineer Simon Lake (1866-1945) to perfect the first underwater vessel. Goldstone explains that Holland's concept was a vessel to make war, while Lake's idea was a submersible salvage vehicle. The lengthy and snarled competition between the two came to involve intense personal animosities, Congressional corruption, manipulation of the press and stock market, and even a trip by President Theodore Roosevelt on one of Holland's early submarines. Goldstone paints a vivid portrait of two brilliant inventors struggling to persuade the U.S. Navy to adopt their machine. It took Holland more than a decade to win the debate, but Lake never stopped slinging accusations of bribery and favoritism to influence the navy and excuse his submarine's unsuitability for undersea warfare. VERDICT An enjoyable book for readers interested in innovations during the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era, along with military or American history.--Mark Jones, Mercantile Lib., Cincinnati
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