360 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of Prendice and the neighboring places ascribed to Divis's ma- 

 chine ! One day an angry crowd came to the parsonage and tore 

 down the iron bars. The authorities then ordered Divis to take 

 away his machine, and he accordingly removed it and deposited 

 it at Brack, where it has been kept to this day. 



There is a marked similarity between the treatment which the 

 invention of Divis suffered at the hands of his neighbors and that 

 accorded to Franklin's conductor in America. When, in 1755, 

 Massachusetts had experienced a sharp shock of an earthquake, 

 the judgment of the public opinion was pronounced upon Frank- 

 lin's rods as the direct cause of the earthquake. As late as 1770 a 

 Boston clergyman preached against the lightning-rods as "im- 

 pious contrivances to prevent the execution of the wrath of 

 Heaven." The difference between the relative positions of the 

 two inventors was that in America a divine denounced a layman, 

 whereas in Moravia laymen denounced a divine. We unwillingly 

 recall the words of Madler : " In all times and in all countries the 

 enemies of truth and light pretend to be fighting for the honor 

 and glory of God." 



Thus Divis was prevented from perfecting his machine, which 

 would have doubtless been wrought by him into a different, more 

 advantageous, shape but for the official order. Divis felt himself 

 obliged to give up his studies and experiments in electricity, and 

 his versatile genius turned to a new field — music. He was well 

 acquainted with acoustics, and as a Bohemian he possessed like- 

 wise a personal liking for music ; and before long his creative 

 genius enriched the musical world with a new instrument which 

 he named " denis d'or." * This instrument is played by both 

 hands and feet, like an organ, and it can give the sound of almost 

 any stringed or wind instrument, from the pianissimo to the 

 fortissimo, as it has as many as one hundred and thirty registers. 

 In its effect this instrument is equal to a full orchestra. 



This was the last great work of Divis, and on the 25th of 

 December, 1765, the untiring worker quietly departed his life. 



Personally, Divis had the true appearance of a thinker. In his 

 early youth his health was rather delicate, but it improved steadi- 

 ly after he began his electrical experiments and never failed him 

 again, although he was constantly at work. Oftentimes he was 

 so deeply absorbed in his experiments or observations that he 

 would not notice his friends coming to see him, until a servant 

 reminded him of their presence by pulling his sleeve. The steady 

 mental work gave his face a serious, unfriendly mien, which dis- 

 appeared, however, whenever he happened to be in a circle of his 

 friends. His guests, among whom there were many distinguished 



* Denis is a French translation of the Bohemian name Divis. D'or means " of gold." 



