Morning journal and courier., 1880-07-28
A Diver Who Can Stay Under Water With
 out Air Tubes.
From Chambers Journal.


 We lately presented an account of MT. Fleuss' discovery of method of diving and living under water without recourse to air tubes. AS corroborating what we stated re- garding this remarkable person and his dis covery, the following appears in the Times of April 27.
 MT. FIeuss made his first appearance at the Royal Aquarium, Westminster, last night, in the large tank built for the whale and used by the seals His remarkable performance under water was better seen than it has been elsewhere during the few months of the ez- hibition of his apparatus at the Polytechnic or at Brighton. He can stay under water for five hours without an air tube or any other communication with the surface; and this absence of encumbrance gives him much greater freedom than other divers possess He can, for instance. lie down and bend his body in any position without fear of being lifted or fioated up, and without suffering from the obstruction of the long pipe which usually connects the head of diver with a boat above.
 In short, he possesses the principal advan- tage which distinguishes an animal from a plant, he moves independently instead of be- ing rooted to one spot. Foreshortenedi in the water, he presents curious appearance, with great goggle eyes in his burnished helmet a strong water-tight dress and water-tight boots. The spectators amuse themselves by throwing pence for him to pick up or by writing messages to him card board al ways under water. He sharpens his pencil under water, gives and receives signals with a cord and is to experiment on the submar- inc use of the telephone. At Ryde, he walk ed for quarter of mile under the sea- at Brighton he went down in five fathoms by the chain pier in rough weather.
 If he could eat under water, Mir. F1euss says he could stay for longer period than the five hours which he gives as the ordinary limit. Yesterday afternoon he remained two hours and seven minutes under water in the aquarium, and again went down for half an hour in the evening.
 In short lecture on his apparatus, which Mir. Fleuss gave in the evening, immediately on returning to the upper air, he stated that his method was no secret, that it is patented and that the specifications are accordingly published. In every draught of breath we draw we take certain amount of oxygen with four times as much nitrogen. A little of the oxygen becomes fixed in the form of car bonic acid, and the air thus deteriorated be- comes unfit to breathe. If, however, the place of the missing oxygen is taken by 8 fresh supply, the mixture again becomes fit for breathing. According to Mir. Fleuss, he takes down compressed oxygen to supply the place of that which is breathed; in other words, he has invented set of anti-lungs, which per form function precisely the reverse of that of the lungs proper.
 This was confessedly rough, popular, nasty and generalized explanation. A more scientific account may be expected from the lecture on the subject which Dr. B. w Rich ardson, F. R. S., who is especially qualified for the investigation by his well-known ex- periments on ozone, is to deliver at the Socie- ty of Arts. It will be remembered that it was to the same society that Professor Tyndau explained the fireman's respirater, which has sine proved in practice 50 valuable an instru- ment in straining the bad air at fires before it reaches the lungs and so enabling the fire man to breathe what air is left among smoke and noxious waters.
 Mir. Fleuss' method is still more effectual because he carries his own supply of oxygen with him in compressed form and has thus been enabled to breathe in an atmosphere in which there is no appreciable quantity of air at all. He states that he has gone through fre-damp (carburetted hydrogen) end choke damp (carbonic acid, and could exist in the charged receiver of gas factory. In the great helmet and in the hollows of his armor there is room for certain quantity of air, and this is kept fresh and constantly renew ed by stream of oxygen, the pressure of which he regulates by tap at will To re- fresh himself he increases the flow of oxygen; and when he requires no stimulus dinninishes 1t Mir. F1euss is a young and vigorous man, who has served in the steamboats of the Pe- ninsular and Oriental Company. His appar- atus is certainly very ingenious and effective and well worthy of attention.