Draining the North Sea - 1930s project

[FourWheelDrift]

Found this, it's from the September 1930 edition of Modern Mechanix Magazine, an American publication.

Click for bigger then click again on thumbsnap page.



Imagine the arguments over who has sovereignty on the new lands, but back then I suppose they thought Europe could all get along and play nicely.

[anonymous-user]

Check out Croydon airport well to the south of London.

[Simpo Two]

Overcrowded in 1938!

[RizzoTheRat]

I lvoe that they've kept a body of water between us and the French rather than putting the dam across the straights of Dover. Can't possibly be joined to the old enemy

[Simpo Two]

Note that this plan connects England to Germany by land one year before WW2 - very handy for the Panzers...

[FourWheelDrift]

9 years, it's from September 1930.

[LukeSi]

Would have hampered U-Boat operations a fair bit

[Simpo Two]

FourWheelDrift said:

9 years, it's from September 1930.

Doh, sorry.

[jmorgan]

LukeSi said:

Would have hampered U-Boat operations a fair bit

They would have just shifted operations to Pembroke and Galway.

[storminnorman]

I love nutjob stuff like this. did a bit of searching and it seems to be an idea mostly developed by the magazine itself, instead of "scientists"

We should be thankful that it didn't happen, it would have been busy at night - if they had named it after the historical landmass
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doggerland

Bit more googling and this came up as well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantropa
very interesting read.


good find OP.

[Simpo Two]

Or pump it the other way and simply flood all those pesky debtor nations!

[anonymous-user]

Ok, maybe i'm being stupid, but what do you do with the rivers that flow "into" the new land mass?

At somepoint the water has to be returned to the sea, so at some point you are going to have to pump al lthat water back up to sea level. Anyone care to work out how much power that would use??

[danrc]

storminnorman said:

I love nutjob stuff like this. did a bit of searching and it seems to be an idea mostly developed by the magazine itself, instead of "scientists"

We should be thankful that it didn't happen, it would have been busy at night - if they had named it after the historical landmass
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doggerland

Bit more googling and this came up as well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantropa
very interesting read.


good find OP.

That made my morning ritual far more interesting. Thanks for posting. You can get lost in wikipedia if you're not careful.

[jmorgan]

Max_Torque said:

Ok, maybe i'm being stupid, but what do you do with the rivers that flow "into" the new land mass?

At somepoint the water has to be returned to the sea, so at some point you are going to have to pump al lthat water back up to sea level. Anyone care to work out how much power that would use??

On a slightly related note. Wonder what the evaporation is like for an a large sea that has been cut off? I know the Aral sea has sort of vanished.

[davepoth]

Max_Torque said:

Ok, maybe i'm being stupid, but what do you do with the rivers that flow "into" the new land mass?

At somepoint the water has to be returned to the sea, so at some point you are going to have to pump al lthat water back up to sea level. Anyone care to work out how much power that would use??

Without bothering to click the link, the idea is that the excess gets desalinated and pumped into the Sahara for irrigation by the looks of the picture. The hydroelectric dams would provide a significant proportion of the energy required to do that.