Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-08-06
Remarkable Performances Under
Water.

Water.
Mr.. FLEUss made his first appear.
ance at the Royal Aquarium, West
minister, last night, in the large tank
built for the whale and used BY the
seals. His remarkable Performance un-
der water was better seen than Il has
been elsewhere either during the few
months of the exhibition of his apparatus
at the Polytechnic or at Brighton. He
can stay under the water for five hours
without an air-tube or any other COM
munication with the surface, and this
absence II incumbrance gives him much
greater freedom than any other divers
possess. He can, for instance, lie down
and bend his body ia any position with
out fear Of being lifted or hoRted up,
and without suffering from the obstruc-
ton of the long pipe which usually con-
meets the head of diver with a boat
above. In short, he possesses the prin-
cipal advantage which distinguishes an
animal from plant; he moves indie
pendently instead of being rooted to one
spot. Foreshadowed in the water, he
presents curious appearance, with
great google eyes in his FURNISHED he'll
AhDNg a nhlOAk WHhNA~bAkAAb ulGno anu
water-boots. The spectators amuse
themselves by throwing pence for him
20 pick up, or by writing messages to
him on cardboard, always under water
He sharpens his pencil under water,
gives and receives signals with a cord,
and is TO experiment on the submarine
use of the telephone. At Ryde he walked
for a quarter Of amile under the sea at
Brighton he went down in five fathoms
by the chain pier in rough weather. II
he could eat under water, Mr.. Fleuss
says he could stay for a longer period
than five hours which he gives as an or
binary 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 Mr.. Fleuss gave in the
evening Immediately on returning to the
upper air, he stated that his method is
no secret, that it is patented and
that the specifications are accord
ingly published. In every draught of
breath we draw we take in certain
amount of oxygen with four times as
much nitrogen. A little of the nitrogen
becomes fixed in the form of carbonic
acid, and the air thus deteriorated be-
comes unfit TO breathe. If, however,
the place of the missing oxygen is taken
by fresh supply, the mixture becomes
again fit for breathing. According to
Mr.. Fleuss, he takes down compressed
oxygen to supply the place of that which
is breathed; in other words, he has in
vented set of anti-lungs, which per-
form function precisely the reverse Of
that of the lungs proper This was con-
tessedly II rough, popular, hasty and
generalized explanation. A more scien-
tific account may be expected from the
lecture on the subject which DR.. b. w.
Richardson, F. r. s., who is specially
qualified for the investigation by his
well known experiments on ozone, is TO
deliver at the Society of Arts. 1t will
be remembered that it was to the same
society that Prof. Tyndall explained the
firemen's respirator, which has since
proved in practice so valuable an instru-
ment in straining the bad air at fires be-
fore it reaches the lungs, and so ena-
bling the fireman to breathe what air is
left among smoke and noxious vapors.
Mr.. Fleuss's method is still more ef.
fectual, because he carries his own sup
ply 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 fire
damp (carburetted hydrogen) and
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 a
certain quantity of air, and this is kept
fresh and constantly renewed by a
stream of oxygen, the pressure of which
he regulates by a tap at will. To re-
fresh himself he increases the flow of
oxygen, and when he requires stimulus
diminishes it. Mr.. Fleuss is a young
and vigorous man, who has served in
the steamboats, of the Peninsular and
Oriental Company. His apparatus is
certainly very ingenious and effective,
aud wel worthy of attention.---LoHdon
Times. .I.