Mechanics' Magazine, MUSEUM, REGISTER, JOURNAL, AND GAZETTE. No. 845.] SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1839. Printed and Published for the Proprietor, by W. A. Robertson, No. 166, Fleet-street. [Price 3d. The unearthly voices, &c. &c." Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto I. My dear Sir,-I am, as your pages testify, the first person who ever, being above water himself and seeing every thing around him, and holding communication with those around him above water, held conversation at the same time with a person who was submerged in the water in the diving bell open at the bottom, from which, in the usual manner, the water was prevented from entering by the condensation of the air by the condensing air pump. I am also the first who ever, sitting at ease in atmospheric air without condensation, at the bottom, ("at," but on the very bottom,) held conversation with persons above water, and at the same time viewed the bottom with the water removed from it, and illuminated by a light which I had brought down with me in a lantern for that and for some other purposes. The very first person who ever, since the creation of the world, stood upon the bottom of the water-the very bottom-after descending in the bell, and who, while there, held conversation with a person above water, was a diver of Blackwall, on whose steadiness I had, from experience, reliance; and who, upon the occasion I have alluded to, (after I had, of course, myself first proved its security), descended in my "communicating diving bell," and with whom, while sitting in my "air chamber," I held communion of thought, not by signal strokes of the hammer, but by distinctly spoken words: for example, "Are you anxious to be heaved up?" And No, Sir," the answer. 66 To that diver, as he stood upon the bottom in his subaqueous pavilion, with a light burning by his side, the piston rod of the condensing air pump was not only as the rod of Moses, which, when he held out his hand and stretched it forth over the Red Sea, laid dry a portion of its bottom; but it was more-it created a passage for the sound of his voice between the ground at the bottom of the water and a chamber above water, which chamber (for experiment) might either float upon the surface, be fixed on the land, or even held in suspension in the air by a balloon. "The complex idea," (I use these terms in the philosophical sense of that mighty metaphysician, Locke,) of the diving bell, was formerly "a most voiceless thought;" I have endeavoured, with great industry of observation, and by tides of the most patient meditation, to devise means by which it shall be "a most voiceless thought" no longer. A description of the experiment to which I have alluded, was first published in the Philosophical Magazine, under the head of "Account of a Descent in Steele's Communicating Diving Bell," and an article relating to the development of the principle of construction, under the head of "Analysis," forms part of the Appendix to my Essay “on the Improvement of the Shannon Navigation," of which there is a copy in the Library of the London Institution of Civil Engineers, which I presented to the society as one of my contributions as a member, and the work was dedicated to our lamented late President, Mr. Telford. An entirely new principle of intercommunion by conversation, and not signals or writings, has occurred to me within these few days, in one of those reveries, those dreamy visions, my habitual suboceanic meditations. In order to understand its operation, it is not necessary that the reader should understand the construction of one part of the communicating diving bell, viz., the communicating chamber below water; nor is it, indeed, utterly indispensable that he should understand the principle even of the air chamber, nor far less that he should comprehend the rationale of those labyrinthian mazes, and intervolutions of modes of intercommunion of thought, and of theoretically possible interchange of place, resulting from the principle of construction, in order to have a distinct perception of what I shall describe. 46 For the understanding this theorem, a perfect knowledge of the principle of the common diving bell will be sufficient. The French term "aperception" is exquisitely felicitous in the philosophical use of words;" now, although I have a very distinct perception that some things can be achieved by the operation of this principle, a principle depending upon a STEELE'S DIVING-BELL RECIPROCATING CHAMBER. property of fluids, which could not be effected by the air chamber, yet still my mind is (as yet) in a state of pure aperception of any important practical benefit from its application to diving operations in the present state of subaqueous science, beyond that which can be derived from my primitive air chamber used for the same purpose. But, even already, it affords a very interesting theoretical improvement, viz., a mode of holding conversation between persons in open-bottomed diving bells at very different depths beneath the surface of the water; and something, as it were, "shimmers through mist" to my understanding, giving a kind of phantasmic prognostication, that by dint of my habit of intensely patient contemplation, and effort at industrious observation of facts in external nature, I may hereafter evolve from my new principle some consequences, not without practical utility, either in submarine operations, or if not in these, in some other department of useful knowledge. The rule of Socrates was an admirable one. Xenophon tells us, in his Memorabilia, of the methods which he used to make his friends more practical, 66 σε πραχτιχω τερουσ.” What is a mere theorizer in this age of the world, when the state of human society is in rapip revolution under the magic spell of practical physical science? I don't say he is useless, because every new theorem, however abstract, is so much added to the general stock of human knowledge, but he would be assuredly more useful if "more practical," in the sense in which it was used by Socrates, and by Bacon, the father of the philosophy of induction. That which is done by the agency of solid matter in the case of my air-tight air chamber, is, by my present principle of construction, effected by a fluid or fluids, and in a chamber through which a current of air may be in constant flow, and, furthermore, the means of establishing the power of creating interknowledge are generated without the necessity, the actual necessity, of the insertion of what I shall designate the intercommunion voice-pipe, in any part whatever, either of the subaqueous or superaqueous machinery between which I wish to establish conversational communication. In the air chamber an insertion is part of the essence of the construction. I say for the sake of precision, "without ac 35 tual necessity;" but it may also be done by insertion of the tube in solid matter, as in the case of the air chamber. The reader will permit me to observe, that, by the sectional diagram which I have drawn, I only illustrate the principle which has newly suggested itself to me in its most general form, and utterly unencumbered at the present by any minuteness of detail. The diagram represents a transverse section of a ship with a deep tank in it, a section of the reciprocating diving chamber, and a rude section of the communicating diving bell, submerged beneath the vessel. A, intercommunication voice tube; B, air-hose; C, suspending chain; D, E, communication voice tubes; G, diving bell open chamber; H, separate chamber. Let a chamber, Z, Z, without a bottom, (just on the principle of the common diving bell,) be firmly fixed in the tank, in the position represented in the section of it in the diagram, its lower rim not touching the bottom. Let there be little windows in it of thick and clear glass, of the same kind as those in the air chamber (not in the diagram) and the communicating chamber beneath the water, which is. Now, assuming that a flexible tube, the one represented, shall pass from this chamber into the open diving bell before the descent of the latter from the air into the water, and that mercury FF be poured into the tank until it shall rise far above the lower rim of the chamber; it is evident that, by the use of a cock in the chamber, the portion of that chamber above the mercury may be like the diving bell before its immersion, filled with the circumambient atmospheric air without any condensation. But now, let us suppose this cock to be closed and perfectly air-tight, and that the bell shall then descend progressively into the water in the ordinary manner, it is quite clear that the chamber above water will be progressively filled with air of the same progressively increasing density with the air in the bell in its descent in the water, and that the mercury in that chamber will, consequently, suffer a corresponding progressive depression, the quantity of that depression being determined by the ratio of the difference of the specific gravities of these two fluids; in homely parlance, there will be a sinking of its floor. I mention mercury, because, in consequence of its great specific gravity, the theorem can have its practical demonstration by experiment in so much less room; but water, or even a fluid lighter than water, could be used, (for the principle is general), but then, of course, the altitude of the tank, and of the chamber in it, must be supposed to be increased in an inverse proportion; and I, therefore, mention this merely as a pure scientific abstraction in my generalizing. Supposing the chamber to be graduated, it is evident, on the same principle of reciprocation, that the height of the fluid above its bottom would always give the depth of the bell in the water as perfectly as it would be given by the chain of suspension itself, if it were to be graduated for the purpose. Now the reader will be pleased to observe, that the voice pipe A represented in the diagram, plays freely in its undulations through fluids, and through fluids alone; elastic, and non-elastic, air, mercury, and water; but it might have no less than three insertions, viz., in the chamber, and the tank, and in the bell below, or in two of them, or in only one. As a corollary on this subject, a moment's consideration will show that a hollow cylinder of an indefinite diameter and open at both ends, and (to take the practical maximum as yet attained) 29 fathoms long may be placed, being closely inserted in the bottom of the tank, in a vertical position, and so utterly submerged, that there shall be a fathom of water above its upper end, and, therefore, that its lower end shall be 30 fathoms under the surface, and yet no water shall enter it, although perfectly open at both ends. Consequently, and this is what I alluded to at the commencement as an emanation of this construction, a person in a diving bell at one depth under water, may hold conversation with a person in another bell far above, or far beneath him; and even (theoretically speaking) could pass up and down between them in the cylinder open at both ends, supposing its diameter to be sufficient; or, to take what may appear to be a fantastic, but which yet is, perhaps, the most striking fact in illustration which can be found in nature, flying fish might soar from the water below up quite through the cylinder into the reciprocating chamber. Assuming that, during the time of this submarine ærostation, the reciprocating chamber were to be immersed and to descend in the water, which is evidently possible, and that the lower end of the cylinder, whether it be vertically or obliquely inserted in the tank, should rest on the bottom; and supposing at that bottom to be the coral named Ma drepora ramea, the cylinder and the chamber would be perfumed with an odour like that of the hawthorn in full flower in the spring. "Zephyr with Aurora playing, As he met her once a Maying," is a good illustration of the spirit in which a person plays with a favourite principle in scientific theorizing, in mere theorizing; but there is a mighty difference between mere theorizing, and the putting together of expensive and complicated machinery. "Words are much more easily put together than bricks," said Ariosto. I have mentioned 30 fathoms as the maximum depth as yet attained in diving operations; and it gives me great gratification to be able to announce to the scientific world, that this depth has been attained; a fact, perhaps, more interesting to the physiologist than to the engineer, inasmuch, as it was by sending down a supply of vital air in prodigal superabundance to the divers, lavishly and utterly above the supply necessary to counteract the more mechanical pressure at that depth of the superincumbent water and keep it out of their helmets, that they have lately worked at Navarino, and are now working in the Baltic, at 30 fathoms beneath the surface! I have been put in possession of this extremely interesting fact in physiology and engineering by the very highest authority. My friend, Mr. Alexander Gordon, of Fludyer-street, in London, Civil Engineer, with whom I have been in communication on my theory of submarine illumination by the oxyhydrogen gas-light, showed me a pistol taken up at Navarino at the depth I have mentioned, by means of that ethereal apparatus to the effects of which I have alluded, and which was prepared and sent out to Navarino under Mr. Gordon's direction. This letter is intended to be, as far as possible, practically useful, in calling the attention of scientific minds to the department of science to which it bears HEATH'S IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND Steel. 37. relation; and I conclude by observing, after my statement of the foregoing most interesting fact, that, as the diving helmet is nothing more or less than a mere small diving bell for the head, it is evident that the principle of intercommunion which I have established either by my primitive air chamber, or by my new reciprocating diving bell chamber, is also applicable to this exquisitely beautiful process of performing submarine operations. This system is to diving bells what railway trains are to stage coaches. I mentioned this to Mr. Deane, when he was employed in my native county, Clare, and it was on an occasion when I descended in his water-tight dress and helmet, that I had my most interesting observation on solar light, seen through the waters of the Atlantic, and, perhaps, my most interesting meditation on the application of oxyhydrogen gas light for submarine illumination. Fourteen years ago I recommended the use of a guarded lamp let down into the water with a concave reflector. In this manner do I, by industry in actual observation, and by habits of most patient thinking, make au humble effort that the human voice shall be heard through the waters of the deep, and that they may be penetrated by human vision by (in meditation) conflict between my spirit and "the Spirit of the Flood." I have the honour to be, My dear Sir, With great truth, THOMAS STEELE, (A.M., Magdalene College, Cam- Brussels, 1839. HEATH'S IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL. (Patent dated 5th April; Specification inrolled, 5th Oct. 1839.) Mr. Heath's invention consists, first, in the extraction of pure cast iron from the ore, without the intervention of any earthy, alkaline, or saline matter, to form a vitreous flux, cinder, or slag; second, in producing cast steel by fusing the pure cast iron so obtained, along with malleable iron or certain metallic oxides, in such proportions as may decarburate the cast iron to a certain degree; and in carrying the process of decarburation to the farther extent desired, by cementation with metallic oxides, without any admixture of carbonaceous matter; third, in the use of oxide of manganese, without mixture of any other substance, in the process of converting cast into malleable iron, by the process of puddling; and, fourth, in the use of carburet of manganese to make common blistered steel into cast steel. Malleable iron is at present produced either by smelting the richer iron ores with just as much charcoal or other carbonaceous matter as is adequate to abstract all the oxygen from the ore, and bring the ore into the malleable state; or by smelting the poorer ores, called "iron stones," in contact with carbonaceous matter, in such excess as to form with the metal the compound called carburet of iron by chemists, and cast iron by manufacturers; and then separating the carbon by a distinct and subsequent process. By the first process, malleable iron of very unequal quality in its different parts is produced; and the second process a cast iron is obtained, which is contaminated to a very considerable degree with sulphur, phosphorus, arsenic, silicon, aluminum-calaium, and other foreign substances. A pure native oxide, or carbonate of iron, is alone capable of producing a pure metal convertible into good steel; but such pure ore has been hitherto debased and deteriorated in the smelting, by mixture with earthy, saline, or alkaline matters, under the name of fluxes, added with the intention of promoting the reduction of the metal, and of protecting it when reduced from the oxidizing influence of the blast. After an extensive course of experiments, Mr. Heath has discovered that such earthy fluxes are not necessary. His operation is commenced by charging the blast furnace successively with coke, charcoal, or other suitable fuel, leaving the tap hole open, that the flame of the fluel, urged by the blast, may play in all directions, so as to bring the whole interior of the furnace into a uniform state of incandescence. When the furnace is thus charged, the tap hole is closed, and 20lbs. of ore are thrown into the furnace for every 100lbs. of fuel. The furnace is charged at this rate |