A History of Inventions, Discoveries, and Origins, Volume I (of 2). Johann Beckmann
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Название: A History of Inventions, Discoveries, and Origins, Volume I (of 2)

Автор: Johann Beckmann

Издательство: Public Domain

Жанр: Зарубежная классика

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273

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Instances of the dexterity of the savages in diving and swimming may be seen in J. Kraft, Sitten der Wilden, Kopenhagen, 1766, 8vo, p. 39. To which may be added the account given by Maffæus of the Brasilians: “They are,” says he, “wonderfully skilled in the art of diving, and can remain sometimes for hours under water, with their eyes open, in order to search for any thing at the bottom.” – Hist. Indic. lib. ii.

275

Lucanus, iii. 697.

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Livius, xliv. c. 10. Manilii Astronom. v. 449.

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A Latin translation of these laws may be found in Marquard de Jure Mercatorum, p. 338. “If gold or silver, or any other article be brought up from the depth of eight cubits, the person who saves it shall receive one-third. If from fifteen cubits, the person who saves it shall, on account of the danger of the depth, receive one-half. If goods are cast up by the waves towards the shore, and found sunk at the depth of one cubit, the person who carries them out safe shall receive a tenth part.” See also Scheffer De Militia Navali, Upsaliæ, 1654, 4to, p. 110.

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Q. Curtius, iv. c. 3. The same account is given by Arrian, De Expedit. Alexandri, lib. ii. p. 138. We are told by Thucydides, in his seventh book, that the Syracusans did the same thing.

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Boerhaave, Prælectiones Academicæ, edit. Halleri, Göttingæ, 1774. 8vo, v. ii. p. 472–474. Halleri Elementa Physiologiæ, iii. p. 252, and viii. 2, p. 14.

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“The divers of Astracan stepped from the warm bath into the water, in which they could not continue above seven minutes, and were brought back from the water, cold and benumbed, to the warm bath, from which they were obliged to return to the water again. This change from heat to cold they repeat five times a day, until at length the blood flows from their nose and ears, and they are carried back quite senseless.” – Gmelin’s Reise durch Russland, ii. p. 199.

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Acta Philosophica Societatis in Anglia, auctore Oldenburgio. Lipsiæ, 1675, 4to, p. 724.

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Scheeps-bouw beschreven door Nic. Witsen. Amsterdam, 1671, fol. p. 288.

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[See the account of the Ceylon pearl fishery in Percival’s Ceylon.]

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“Were the ignorant vulgar told that one could descend to the bottom of the Rhine, in the midst of the water, without wetting one’s clothes, or any part of one’s body, and even carry a lighted candle to the bottom of the water, they would consider it as altogether ridiculous and impossible. This, however, I saw done at Toledo, in Spain, in the year 1538, before the emperor Charles V. and almost ten thousand spectators. The experiment was made by two Greeks, who taking a very large kettle, suspended from ropes with the mouth downwards, fixed beams and planks in the middle of its concavity, upon which they placed themselves, together with a candle. The kettle was equipoised by means of lead fixed round its mouth, so that when let down towards the water no part of its circumference should touch the water sooner than another, else the water might easily have overcome the air included in it, and have converted it into moist vapour. If a vessel thus prepared be let down gently, and with due care, to the water, the included air with great force makes way for itself through the resisting fluid. Thus the men enclosed in it remain dry, in the midst of the water, for a little while, until, in the course of time, the included air becomes weakened by repeated aspiration, and is at length resolved into gross vapours, being consumed by the greater moisture of the water: but if the vessel be gently drawn up, the men continue dry, and the candle is found burning.” – Taisneri Opuscula de celerrimo motu, quoted by Schott in his Technica Curiosa, lib. vi. c. 9, p. 393.

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“Excellent use may be made of this vessel, which is employed sometimes in labouring under water on sunk ships, to enable the divers to continue longer under water, and to breathe, in turns, for a little while. It was constructed in this manner. A hollow vessel was made of metal, which was let down equally to the surface of the water, and thus carried with it to the bottom of the sea the whole air it contained. It stood upon three feet, like a tripod, which were in length somewhat less than the height of a man; so that the diver, when he was no longer able to contain his breath, could put his head into the vessel, and, having breathed, return again to his work.” – Novum Organum, lib. ii. § 50. Bacon relates the same thing in his Phænomena Universi.

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G. Sinclari Ars nova et magna gravitatis et levitatis. Rot. 1669, 4to, p. 220.

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Paschii Inventa nov-antiqua. Lipsiæ, 1700, 4to, p. 650.

288

Theatri Statici universalis pars tertia. Lipsiæ, 1726, fol. p. 242.

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This account is taken from the History of the British Empire in America, by J. Wynne. London, 1770, 2 vols. 8vo, i. p. 131, and from Campbell’s Lives of the Admirals.

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Martin’s Description of the Western Islands. The second edition. London, 1716, 8vo, p. 253. – Campbell’s Political Survey of Britain. London, 1774, 2 vols. 4to, p. 604.

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These figures are to be found in the following editions of Vegetius: – Lutetiæ apud C. Wechelum, 1532, fol. p. 180. Fegetius, vier Bücher von der Rytterschafft. Erfurt, Hans. Knappen, 1511, fol. These figures are inserted also in Leupold’s Theatrum Pontificale, p. 11, tab. ii. fig. 6.

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Le Fortificationi di Bounaiuto Lorini. Venet. 1609, fol. p. 232.

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Fran. Kessleri Secreta. Oppenheim, 1617, 8vo.

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Bartholini Acta Hafn. 1676, p. i. obs. 17.

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Scheeps-bouw, ut supra.

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See vol. i. p. 222, edit. Hag. Com. 1743.

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Acta Eruditorum, 1683, Decemb. p. 553. Jac. Bernoulli Opera.

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Phil. Trans. 1736. – Martin Triewald’s Konst at lefwa under watnet. Stockholm, 1741, 4to.

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Brewster’s Edinburgh Encyclopædia, Art. Diving-bell.

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Reports of the late John Smeaton, F.R.S., vol. iii. p. 279.

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Phil. Trans. 1717 and 1721. The art of living under water, by Halley.

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Martin’s Philosophia Britannica, vol. iii. p. 180.

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For further information on this important subject the reader is referred to the article Diving-bell in the Encyclopædia Britannica and its Supplement, also the Encyclopædia Metropolitana, Brewster’s Edinburgh and the Penny Cyclopædia, Halley’s papers in the Phil. Trans. for 1716 and 1721, Triewald’s in the same for 1736, Healy in the Philosophical Magazine, vol. xv., and Leopold’s Theatrum Machinarum Hydraulicarum.

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Lib. xxxvi. c. 26.

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Lib. xxxv. c. 26. and lib. xxxvii. c. 9. The lapis obsidianus, which Obsidius first found in Ethiopia, and made known, is undoubtedly the same as that vulcanic glass which is sometimes called Icelandic agate, pumex vitreus, and by the Spaniards, who brought it from America and California, named galinace.

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Historiæ Augustæ Scriptores, in vita Gallieni, cap. 12.

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Ib. in Vopisc. vita Saturnini, c. 8.

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Strabo, Amst. 1707, fol. lib. xvi. p. 1099. – Some consider the glass earth here mentioned as a mineral alkali that was really found in Egypt, and which served to make glass; but, as the author speaks expressly of coloured glass, I do not think that the above salt, without which no glass was then made, is what is meant; but rather a metallic oxide, such perhaps as ochre or manganese.

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Sen. Op. Lipsii, p. 579.

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