Simon Lake was a Quaker American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 mechanical engineer and naval architect who obtained over two hundred patent

Patent

A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....

s for advances in naval design and competed with John Philip Holland

John Philip Holland

John Philip Holland was an Irish engineer who developed the first submarine to be formally commissioned by the U.S...

 to build the first submarine

Submarine

A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...

s for the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

.

Born in Pleasantville, New Jersey

Pleasantville, New Jersey

-Local government:Pleasantville operates under the City form of New Jersey municipal government, led by a Mayor and a seven-member City Council. The City Council consists of two members elected from wards to three-year terms, and five members elected at-large to four-year terms in office, all of...

, Lake joined his father's foundry business after attending public schools in New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

 and Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

. Lake had a strong interest in undersea travel.

He built his first submarine, Argonaut Junior

Argonaut Junior

The Argonaut Junior was the first successful submarine built by engineer Simon Lake. Her main attribute like that of the sub in built by Lake in 1897 Argonaut ; was an air lock. Her dimensions were length 14ft, beam 4 ft, depth 5 ft. Different sources incorrectly identify "Argonaut No 1", and...

, in 1894 in response to an 1893 request from the Navy for a submarine torpedo boat.