Early submarine. Historical artwork of an internal view of the Goubet submarine. This early submarine, built by the French inventor Claude Goubet in 1881, was designed for two people. It was battery-powered, had a Siemens electric motor for its propeller, and had a light mounted on the front. The operators could see through small glass windows using a set of prisms to see up, down and around. The first Goubet submarine was 5 metres long and weighed 6 tonnes. It was tested in the river Seine in Paris, France, but proved to be unstable in the water. Artwork from A Travers l'Electricite (G. Dary, Paris, 1900).