PROTO-BATHYSPHERES 45 



Schott naively writes, "Thanks to this apparatus, one 

 can walk at the bottom of the water, see, read, write, 

 carry letters and do other things of this kind. But it is 

 necessary to use great care to sink the bell vertically so as 

 to avoid the abnormal introduction of the water, which 

 would bring about a catastrophe." 



Lorini in 1609 produced a description of machines in 

 which men might remain under water. One of these was 

 an amazing structure never before or afterwards at- 

 tempted (Fig. 12). A great tube of rawhide leather about 

 thirty feet in length is held open by many circular bands 

 of iron, and with a platform of iron at the bottom. Upon 

 this the diver sits encased in a water-tight suit of goatskin 

 tied at waist and wrists, which is of a piece with the verti- 

 cal tube. The diver's head is inside the tube and he can 

 look out of two small crystal windows and can feel about 

 and do what he wishes with his free hands, shouting di- 

 rections up the tube and, presumably, breathing air which 

 is supposed to circulate up and down the tube. A pulley 

 and a rope lower and raise the whole apparatus, which, 

 crazy though it appears, would seem at least clumsily 

 practiced for a brief period. We cannot but admire the 

 ingenuity of these inventors, who for so long worked 

 without any knowledge of oxygen and rubber. 



Seventy-three years after Lorini propounded his scheme, 

 another Italian, Borelli, invented a clumsy, awkward, and 

 quite impractical apparatus, which, however, contained 

 the germ of the idea which has made all modern diving 



