Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1859-12-10

legs Of a tortoise, which that animal sometime
cOndescends to put out. The illusion was instan.
|, y destroyed by seeing the two mermen, who ba,
been at work 10 the bell, following their legs, ant
dropping into the boat, to be rowed toward th
, wet aud Shiny pyramid Of steps.
They bad been down for the second ave hours
period Of their two daily dips (tbeir days worl
t under water being about ten hours) aud they look
. ed muddy, wet heavy and tired, and flushed il
e the face with a reddish-olive brown. They 60 Il
D work in couples a, daybreak. and thsir wages ar,
a little higher than they would get on land, being
about one hundred pounds a year.
The divipg.bells tina. are used at these work,
seem to be the ordinary engineering bells, or boxe,
: first employed by Mr.. Smeaton in repairing the
K foundations of uextambridge in 1870, and after
" wards in 1888, when ho was engaged in c%onstruc
2 ting Ramsgate harbor. The air, in this instance
is pumped down a conger eel-lookipg tube from
the scaffolcing above; another tube runs up to the
same machine. containing an endless chain, by
which anything can be drawn into the bell while
it is under waters; another tube is placed in the
same position, through which the diver below, can
signal to those above to shift the bell from place to
place; finally. the whole structure is suspended BY
strong chairs, fastened to nutted rings 10 The top
of the bell. The tubes are elastic, and prevented
from closing by a metal framework which runs up
the inside.
dropped clumsily down the pyramid Of steps
toward my boat, putting my heavy boots in the
water that dashed over the stone, and my hands in
Shiny, blanched sea-weed, that had chung to the
masonery and looked like maccaroni. In stormy
weather, l was told tho mermen are sometimes
washed of these steIs s; but as l descended in what
was considered fine weather, l was merely washed
on them.
A few minutes, with q few bounding pulls of the
%m0rmcn's special waterman. and l found myself
under the dripping dome of my allotted diving
bell. Selling a largo iron ring which hung from
the roof Of tho bell, l drew myself up into the
chamber, placed my feet upon q muddy narrow
board that went across from side to side and res
ted upon two small lodges, and seated M yself upon
another board, similarly supported, that went
across one end Of the bell, like o seat in a four
wheeled cab. My companion merman-a regular
diver, who had directed my Observation-Disclosures
me, and placed himself on the opposite eide. The
boat glided away, and we we're left suspended over
the water. -
Our apartment bad something of the bathing
machine about it; something of the condemned
cell in Newgate; something of the coal-mine; and
something of Robinson Crusoe's hut. It was
about four feet and a half high, four feet broad.
and six feet long. Its WALLS we're of ~csst-iron,
about three inches thick. and its roof was slightly
copcave from the interior, containing six thick cir
cular bull's-eye windows, about the size of tea-sau-
GERS, which, being covered outside with four eros
sed and recrossed bars Of thin iron as a protection
from falling stones. presented the appearance of
open worked tartlets. On one side of the bell
we're banging a heavy pickaxe, a thick shovel, a
%crowbar, a hammer, q bill-hook-all of solid make
and a bundle of dirty tow that looked like O doll.
On the other side-wall of the bell was a short
length of iron sausagework. reminding me very
lforcibly of Jack Sheppard it, the strongest cell of
Ncwgate, Baron Trenck in prison. or the lowest
dungeon of the castle keep. This chain, for chain
it was, was carried to be attached to a strong nut
ted ring in the roof of the bell, dropping into the
water with q hook at its other end: which hook,
when fastened 20 the ring at the top of every stone
block that had been lowered by machinery to the
bottom of tho sea, would rai,e or move tho stone
by the simple raising or moving OF the bell. This,
In substance, was all the heavy work that was per.
formed with the diving-bell machinery, the divers
going down to attach and detach the chains-t 10
place the blocks by directing the motions of the
bell through signals givon to the men above-and
to dig out aud level the foundation amougs, the
sea-anemones at the base. ,-s. g. t:f q:
We are let down. Utmost i'm perceptibly, by two
men at the windlass machinery. Az two funda.
mental principles in the management of diving.
bells are. that they shall descend so that the four
sideso OF the lower edge may touch the water on aley.
ell and simultaneously and that the down ward Jour.
ney through the water shall be gradual and slow
any rapid paying out Of the lowering chains W uld
be Infant death to those in the bell, BY filling i,
with water. This accident is provided asains. by
a checking crab" Of complicated structure. but
of simple seltacting operation, which, the momeu,
it is required, Immediately comes into use. %
By degrees, the square patch Of thick milk
fluid beneath cur feet appears to rise towards us,
and we are made aware of the bell having bitten
the sea by a Topping, sucking noise, and the
swelling up Of the water to the narrow plank
across the centre, near the bottom, on which we
rest our seven-league boots. AT this moment ]
became concious Of The measured beat of the
watchful air-forcipg pump, which sounds like the
humping Of a heavy foots:ep in a moderote-sized
house, two floors overhead tits followed by a
gentle snorting, like the respirations of a horse,
the struggle of the air through the valve at the
bottom of the congereel-looking tube. This valve
is IN the centre of the roof of tho diving.telI, and
cannot be interfsred with by the men in the cell
1t the humping of the pump ceases, or the snort
ing is no longer heard, it is the duty OF the dive,
to pull the raising sigoal. as the supply of life il
no longer coming in, and Eve or six minutes may
exhaust the existing stock Of air. =
Our destination is sixty feet below, the surface,
or twice thu depth Of the street seen from the tor
of an ordiEary house; and very slowly We proceed
to reach it. The thick water below US is now
stationary, and we have no guide by which to
measure our progress except the different grada-
tons Of light. / sm FIRST made aware of the