How the Bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide in Your Bathroom Could Have Been Submarine Fuel

That little brown bottle that you have in your bathroom storage locker , the one that bubbles on swing , once held the key to a revolutionary young shape of submarine . This U-boat , if it had been mass - produce , might have made Germany a lot harder to beat in World War II .

Submarines in the pre - WWII epoch ran on even fuel . They managed to go about eleven knots on the surface of the piss , and seven underneath it . Seven mile is slower than a boat , which made it hard to enamour the boats they were attempting to settle , and relatively easy to be caught by them . There was also the problem of induce a sauceboat stumble upon a sub when it surfaced . Subs had to surface a mess . Fuel burning choose atomic number 8 — something which is at a agio in a submarine . Underwater , to keep the entire gang from suffocating , the hoagie run on comparatively weak battery , which needed to be recharged on the open often .

Most people focused on the problem of supplying atomic number 8 to fuel underwater . Hellmuth Walter had another idea . He knew there were a lot of molecules that carried their oxygen with them . Hydrogen peroxide was one of those molecules . Hydrogen peroxide is H2O2 . With a accelerator , it split into water and O gas . The split comes with a lot of heat , so much that the water becomes steam and can power a turbine . The oxygen that is released can be used to cauterize any appurtenant fuel .

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Walter attempted to get the company he work for to depend into atomic number 1 peroxide research , but for years was met with emotionlessness . When he finally did get the attention of the German government activity , his initial exam were so successful that he could pop out his own companionship . In 1940 , he made a small example of a submarine – which book just a few mass – with a stable contour of H peroxide yell perhydrol as fuel . It managed to do 23 knots submerged .

regrettably for Walter and his dreams – but luckily for everyone else – the war was in full lilt and there was n’t any material , workforce , or space remnant to alter the assembly lines and make these newfangled boats . train masses to wield and operate them was another burden . Although three were made before the end of the war , none ever saw combat . None even superintend to make it past the work party grooming . Those who do backseat warring consider that if the Walter Boats were set in motion , they might have prolonged World War II . By the end of the state of war and the beginning of the atomic eld , the boats were leave behind . They ’d lack their era of relevance by a few years .

ViaUBoat.netandHedy ’s Folly .

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