Ictíneo (Monturiol's submarine with an air-independent engine)
Ictíneo (submarino de Monturiol con motor independiente del aire)
- Date
- 1859-1867 · confidence high
- Place
- Port of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
- Credited to
- Narcís Monturiol
- Field
- Movement
What it is
A double-hulled submarine launched in Barcelona in 1859 (Ictíneo I) and improved in 1864 (Ictíneo II), with a steam engine fuelled by a chemical reaction that produced heat and oxygen without outside air. It is a forerunner of air-independent propulsion.
Wilhelm Bauer had already built a working submarine in 1851 (Brandtaucher). What is original in the Ictíneo II is its chemical engine (zinc, manganese dioxide and potassium chlorate), tested in 1867; the Ictíneo I was hand-driven.
What it led to
- dives to about 28 m and seven and a half hours underwater
- air-independent propulsion for submarines
- the Navegación Submarina company, bankrupt in 1867