NAUTILUS


Meaning of NAUTILUS in English

n.

Any of at least three historic submarines .

Robert Fulton built one of the earliest submersible craft in 1800 in France; his Nautilus had a collapsible mast and sail for surface propulsion and a hand-turned propeller for power. Andrew Campbell and James Ash of Britain built a Nautilus submarine driven by battery-powered electric motors in 1886. The name was also chosen for the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, launched by the U.S. Navy in 1954. Capable of longer submersion than any previous submarine, it made a historic trip under the ice cap of the North Pole from Point Barrow, Alaska, to the Greenland Sea in 1958.

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia.      Краткая энциклопедия Британика.