Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-09-08
THE SUBMARINE DIVER.
His Essential and Complicated Help
lessness Under Water
From Appleton's Magazine.


From Appleton's Magazine.
From his feet to his throat the diver is
dressed in a one piece looseitting. quarter
inch thick suit. consisting of the best rub
Der nodded between two layers of heavy
canvas and Terminating in copper breast
and shoulder plate to which is screwed the
ponderous twenty-five pound helmet pro-
vided with circular face plates in front and
at either side. and at the back with a
goose neck" for the attachment of the air
hose Each foot of the daring adventurer
Is fastened to a twenty pound iron sandal.
and about his waist are buckied hundred
pound leaden belt and a life line Once in
side this armor, SO; fheavy-and stiff and
clumsy that a strong man barely staggers
across deck in 1t, the diver appears for
all the world as IL he were inside a huge
man-shaped balloon. And in this awkward
outfit, hampering every free movement, de-
pendent upon hundred and one favorable
conditions the dyer braves the, unknown
dangers. lurking far below, 3, ,rrsil
From the Instant the helmet Is screwed
down and the helper grasps the life line and
lowers the diver hand over hand. the Click
click-click of the pumps bringing fresh
air and the hiss. of the escape valve carry
ing away the used-up air sound in the
divers ears. The "click-cfck-clfck" becomes
part Of bis 4subconscious self. He is lis
tening for 1t always, ever; not Click
escapes him. He starts violently at the
slightest irregularity of the sound. He lis
tens for 1t so intentfy that to save his soul
bricks into bucket, taking them one at a
time. 1t rs the speech, the one speech the
speech or the pumps which tells him, "All
Is well as far as We are CONCERNED"
The diver hears the -acceleration of the
''click-ciick-cack as the pumps work faster
with his descent where he needs more afr to
counterfeit the increasing water pressure.
The 'click-click click tells him he is going
c.. b. f,.t G,I ftarr ssaI.+
does the water pressure which cosapses the
suit against him tight as skin-save beneath
the helmet and breastplate, where his lungs
require freedom. AS his feet strike bottom
the helpless man becomes even more help
less than before. He Is as IL cut off from
the world above him. His sole means of
speech consists of few sentences commu-
nicated by tugging shaking hose or life
line. His one interpreter is the watchful
helper, paying out or taking in hose and
line and ever feeling the man below as a
fisherman feels" fish.
And now the very laws of nature seem
turned against his helpiessness. Despite the
$50 or 200 pounds Of armor under which he
staggers in daylight. he now feels Hight as
a feather. He has lost practically all SEM
bance Of that most fundamental element OF
physical strength-gravity. So nearly equal
Is the balance between air and lead and
iron and copper that he finds that, like
man on the moon. he can make fabulous
jumps by giving the slightest spring For
all practical purposes he Is powerless as
man suspended In a swing, and his muscles
and sinews of steel become useless, almost
like those of an eight-year-old child. So
helpless is he that he may not stand erect
without being swept from his feet by the
drag of current or tide against hose and
life line. If he wants to progress he must
lean forward at an angle OF IS, degrees and
laboriously use his hands for paddles; or
he must crawl on his hands and knees. dig
ging his fingers into the muck. gigantic
human mudfish. If he strikes a blow with
an ak 1t falls comparatively harmless
Oftenest he Is in such pitch darkness that
he cannot twice hit in the same place. II
he uses a shovel he may not shove the
blade into the mud lest he go backward like
a crab, but must scoop the blade full with
his hands at the risk of cutting and tearing
them against broken glass. tin cans and
other rubbage.
Even his senses the diver may not trust
to warn him below water. He smells moth
ing except the stenches sucked in by the
pumps above; these and the odor OF rubber
from the hose and the smells of the ma
chine oil used on the cylinders clicking air
to him.
His ears he may trust only In part. for.
II loud enough, sounds come to him through
the escape yalve-under water noises. You
might fire the sixteen-inch Sandy Hook gun
over his head and he would not know IL ex-
cent for the quake of the mud under his
feet But he can hear an under water ex-
plosion three miles away; he can hear the
humping and stamping of submarine drids
more than a mile away; he can hear the
grating and grinding of splintered spars
and timbers moving in the grasp Of current