D I V 



Bifing Bell, bell ; then, by shaking the crane rope, iu hook is dis- 

 " ~V~"' engaged from the ring of the lewis, and without mov- 

 ing the crane, the rope is drawn up. Now the bell is 

 drawn up two or three feet, and by the various tackles 

 it is moved to such a position, that the centre of the 

 npper block comes exactly under the hook of the crane 

 rope ; this, like a plumb-line, shews the bell is brought 

 exactly over the stone. The bell is now lowered down 

 upon it, and the divers reeve a strong chain through 

 the ring of the lewis, and also through a ring or iron 

 loop M, Fig. 3, which is in the top of the bell. Now or- 

 dering them to heave up, the stone with the bell is lifted 

 off the ground, and they direct by signals how the} 1 wish 

 to be moved, in order to convey it to the destined spot ; 

 which being done with great care, they proceed with 

 the bell to take up a second stone, which had in the 

 mean time been lowered to the bottom by the crane. 

 No cement is used to unite these stones, as they are all 

 dovetailed into each other, then the joints wedged quite 

 fast by oak wedges driven down ; and, lastly, by sand 

 rammed very hard into all the interstices between the 

 dovetails. The great weight of the stones defends them 

 from the action of the sea, every one of the lower course 

 being 3 feet wide by 4^ long, and 2 feet 3 indies thick; 

 notwithstanding their great weight, the tackle for the 

 bell is so well made, as to lift the stone with the bell 

 altogether, and move it witli great precision. \Ve un- 

 derstand it was contrived by Mr Gott, the resident en- 

 gineer at Ramsgate; Mr Smeaton having suspended his 

 bell by the ordinary tackle, known to masons by the 

 name of sliears, which however did not give that 

 facility of movement which is requisite to lay stones, 

 though it answered very well for clearing the loose 

 stoiu-s. The work of laying an apron of masonry at 

 the foot of the pier, where most exjxjsed to the sea, is 

 -till proceeding every summer ; they have lately had a 

 larger bell cast, viz. 6 feet long and 4- broad, which 

 will permit the divers to have more room, and proceed 

 with greater dispatch, though with the present one they 

 were able to lay as much foundation in the summer 

 months, when the sea is tolerably quiet, as they were 

 able to finish during the remainder of the year. 



Fig. 4. of the same Plate represents the crane boat 

 used for building the pier when it comes above water, 

 a> >vrll as to assist the operations of the diving bell. It 

 is a strong boat, of 30 or 40 tons burden, with a frame 

 ABC1) erected upon it to support the crane gibbet E, 

 from which the stone F is suspended by the rope, and 

 rai.-'eil by the windlass G with cog wheels. In the fi- 

 gure it is not represented in its proper size, being re- 

 duced to the dimensions of the small boat which attends 

 to carry the air-pump for the bell. 



liorelli and Mersennus in Hooke's PliiloiOftfiiral 

 Collections, No. ii. p. 36. Leupold's Then/rum Pontijic, 

 torn. i. ii. xxvi. Bachstrom's Kunttxuschirimmeti, Berl. 

 17^-!. Biizin Hamb. Mm*, i. iii. and xxi. Robertson, 

 Phil. Trans. 1757, p. 30^ Gelacy Mem. Acnd. Par. 

 1757, Hist. 17!). Franklin's ll'orks, Lett. 5~>. Wilkin- 

 -on, Phil. Trans. 1765, p. 95. Abbe de la Chapelle, 

 xur un scaphandre on habit a nager, ou homme-batteau. 

 Mnn. Ai-aJ. 1'nr. \-(>;,. Hist. 139- Thevenot Art de 

 \ficr. Hernardi Arte rii^ionata del noto, 2 vols. 4to. 

 Nnjil. 179*. Klingert, Phil. Ma. vol. iii. p. 172. 

 Law.son, Phil. Mn<r. vol. xx. p. 362. Hallcy, Phil. Trans. 

 17)6, vol. xxix. p. 492; /,/. 1721, vol. xxxi. p. 177. 

 Triewald, Phil. Trans. 17.'i(i, vol. xxxix. p. 377. Spal- 

 ding, Transactions of the Society of Arli, vol. i. p. 220, 

 2!X), iS.c. Hushnell, Transactions t'lfthe American Philo- 

 sophical Society, vol. iv. p. 303. Repertory of Arts, 



21 



D I V 



Crana-boat. 



Pl.ATK 



CCXXXH. 



Hj. I. 



xv. p. 383. Nicholson's Journal, vol. iv. p. 229. Ful- 

 ton in Montucla and La Lande's Hist, des Mathema- 

 tiques, torn. iii. p. 78. Healy, Phil. Mag. vol. xv. p. 9. 

 An account of Telescopes for seeing objects under water, 

 will be found in Brewster's Treatise on New Philoso- 

 phical Instruments, Edin. 1813, p. 225. Respecting 

 the application of the diving-bell to the execution of 

 works under water, much curious information will be 

 found in Coulomb's Recherchcs stir les Moyens d'exe- 

 cnter sous feau toutes sortet de travatix Hi/dratiliqties 

 sans employer aucitii epnisemeiit, 2d edit. Paris, 1797. 



(J. F.) 



DIVISIBILITY OF MATTER. See PHYSICS. 



DIVISION. See ARITHMETIC, vol. ii. p. 383, 399, 

 402,414. 



DIVORCE, is a judicial separation between man 

 and wife, more or less complete, variously affecting the 

 conditions of the marriage- contract, and allowed for 

 different reasons, and to each, or only one of the spouses, 

 according to the respective municipal institutions of dif- 

 ferent countries. . 



In ancient Greece and Rome, and perhaps in all pa- 

 gan countries, the marriage bond was entirely broken, 

 leaving the parties at liberty to form other matrimonial 

 alliances, as if no previous marriage had ever existed. 

 At Athens, and in the later period of the Roman re- 

 public, the right of divorce was equally exercised by 

 both sexes, although, in the earlier ages of Rome, it be. 

 longed exclusively to the men. In both countries, too, 

 it was permitted on a variety of grounds, such as adul- 

 tery on the part of the wife, imposing supposititious 

 children on her husband, counterfeiting his private 

 keys, &c. desertion on the part of the husband, unusu- 

 al severity towards his wife ; and, on either part, ste- 

 rility, old age, or other infirmities ; till at last the most 

 frivolous reasons, and even mutual consent, were re- 

 garded as sufficiently competent grounds for thus totally 

 dissolving the matrimonial connection. The effects 

 upon the conditions of the contract, in other respects, 

 were various, according to circumstances. The most 

 important were, that, where the divorce had taken 

 place, in consequence of the wife's infidelity, she for- 

 feited her dowry ; when without any fault on her 

 part, she reclaimed it, and was also allowed to retain 

 the presents which had been made her by her hus- 

 band. 



The introduction of Christianity created a great 

 change in most countries of Europe, on this particular 

 of their municipal institutions. Marriage, which, from 

 its intimate connection, not only with the happiness of 

 the married parties themselves, and of their offspring, 

 but also with the general welfare of the community, is, 

 even in rude and early stages of society, frequently 

 found blended with the ceremonies and sanctions of re- 

 ligion, came now to be regarded as much in a spiritual 

 as in a civil light. The Romanists exaltedit to the rank 

 of a sacrament ; and, reasoning from the text of scrip- 

 ture, which says, " whom God hath joined together let 

 no man put asunder," their canonists maintained, that 

 divorce, in the sense of the heathen world, was altoge- 

 ther impious and impossible. 



According to the Romish institutions, therefore, there 

 is no such thing as divorce, properly so called. They 

 admit not of a total dissolution of the nuptial bond for 

 any cause whatever ; so that if a party be once truly 

 joined, nothing but the death of one of the spouses 

 can put the other in a condition to form a new alliance. 

 At the same time, they admit certain causes, such as 

 severe treatment of the wife, adultery by either of 



