It was mainly John Ernest Williamson who is known to have continued the development of an invention which his father, Charles Williamson had created for salvage operations. The device he called the ‘Submarine-Tube’. This was in fact a tube which was connected to a ship and lowered vertically into the water. One could enter the tube from aboard the ship and at the other end ( under water ) a steel ball with a large window was built. John Williams called this ball the ‘Photo-Sphere’, his idea was rather to use the apparatus to take photo’s and make films then to use it for salvage. The tube could be made longer or shorter depending on the depth the work had to be done. His working territory were the Bahama’s

In 1916 he finished his first real underwater movie: ‘20.000 leagues under the sea’ the famous story by Jules Vernes, the movie was directed by Stuart Parton. In 1940 the photo-sphere was turned into a ‘Sea Floor Post Office’ when Williamson sold covers with a news paper style letter inside to raise money for a new project.

In 1940 the photo-sphere was turned into a ‘Sea Floor Post Office’ when Williamson sold covers with a news paper style letter inside to raise money for a new project. The letter were to be addressed by the buyer, then given back to Williamson who took them into the sphere where he stamped them with ‘SEA FLOOR, Bahamas’ Above the version with just a rubber stamp on it.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Cover David L.Dekker collection

And another version of a SEA FLOOR stamped Williamson cover, this is a nicer version with some explanations on it and an autograph of Williamson.       Cover David L.Dekker collection

Both covers contain the same ‘newspaper style’ letter inside which explains about Williamsons’ projects.                                                                                  Cover David L.Dekker collection