William Bourne

William Bourne was an English mathematician, innkeeper and former Royal Navy gunner who created an idea for an early submarine. His design, detailed in his book Inventions and Devises published in 1578, was the first recorded plan for an underwater navigation vehicle. He designed an enclosed craft capable of submerging by decreasing the overall volume (rather than flooding chambers as in modern submarines), and being rowed underwater. Bourne described a ship with a wooden frame covered in waterproofed leather, but the description was a general principle rather than a detailed plan. However, Bourne's concept of an underwater rowing boat was put into action by the Dutchman Cornelius Drebbel in 1620, and Nathaniel Symons demonstrated a 'sinking boat' in 1729 using the expanding and contracting volume of the boat to submerge.

External Links

Bourne's bibliography, Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford webpages