Humphries Kassie Lake Rend

From the inspired fiction of Jules Verne to the dark menace of the Cold War, submarines have captivated millions for more than a century. Many have been credited for the invention of the submarine, but one significant figure has been seriously overlooked by both historians and the government. Without the efforts of Simon Lake, underwater navigation would be very different from what it is today. Argonaut: The Submarine Legacy of Simon Lake illustrates the influence of Lake's creation and passion. Simon Lake was the classic American inventor, complete with a rival, John Holland, who reaped most of history's praise for submarine design. However, it was Lake who launched his first working submarine in 1894 at the age of twenty-seven in the rivers of his native New Jersey. In 1898, his steel vessel, the Argonaut, completed a thousand-mile trek up the Atlantic coast. He received accolades from his spiritual mentor, Jules Verne, for his efforts. Despite the potential for government contracts, Lake remained private, using his invention to build a fortune from underwater salvage. Questionable governmental trials resulted in navy contracts for submarines being awarded to Lake's rival, the Holland Torpedo Boat Company (later the Electric Boat Company), prompting Lake to build submarines for Russia and Austria. The United States would not request Lake's service until 1908 and would not recognize his contributions to underwater navigation until after his death in 1945. However, there is little doubt that Lake's work helped provide the basis for modern submarine design and construction. John J. Poluhowich has prepared the most complete biography of Simon Lake, devoting chapters to Lake's earlyfascination with the idea of underwater navigation, his struggles with design, and his disappointment in the government. Argonaut presents Lake as an unsung hero worthy of praise and appreciation from the modern scientific community.

If fresh water is to be treasured, the Great Lakes are the mother lode. No bodies of water can compare to them. One of them, Superior, is the largest lake on earth, and the five lakes together contain a fifth of the world's supply of standing fresh water. Their ten thousand miles of shoreline bound seven states and a Canadian province and are longer than the entire Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States. Their surface area of 95,000 square miles is greater than New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island combined. People who have never visited them -- who have never seen a squall roar across Superior or the horizon stretch unbroken across Michigan or Huron -- have no idea how big they are. They are so vast that they dominate much of the geography, climate, and history of North America. In one way or another, they affect the lives of tens of millions of people. "The Living Great Lakes is the most complete book ever written about the history, nature, and science of these remarkable lakes at the heart of North America. From the geological forces that formed them to the industrial atrocities that nearly destroyed them, to the greatest environmental success stories of our time, the lakes are portrayed in all their complexity. The book, however, is much more than just history. It is also the story of the lakes as told by biologists, fishermen, sailors, and others whom the author grew to know while traveling with them on boats and hiking with them on beaches and islands. The book is also the story of a personal journey. It is the narrative of a six-week voyage through the lakes and beyond as a crewmember on a tallmasted schooner,and a memoir of a lifetime spent on and near the lakes.