DIVINATION DIVING-BELL. 



battle in which he fell. The Egyptians and Greeks 

 had their oracles. With the Romans, divination and 

 witchcraft were brought into a kind of system, and 

 constituted part of their religion, of which the 

 generals and chiefs of parties often availed themselves, 

 with much effect. (See Augur, and Aruspices.) All 

 the ancient Asiatic tribes had modes of divination ; 

 and sorcerers are common among the Indians of 

 America. In fact, we believe that there has hardly 

 been a nation discovered, which had advanced be- 

 yond the lowest barbarism, that did not practice 

 some kind of divination ; and even in the ages in 

 which reason has most prevailed over feeling, the be- 

 lief in the power of foreseeing future events has been 

 entertained ; even men of the greatest intelligence 

 have not been able to rid themselves of it entirely. 



Without going into the question of the degree to 

 which the human mind is capable of looking into 

 futurity, or considering the numerous extraordinary 

 stories afloat in the world, of presentiments and pre- 

 dictions, we shall confine ourselves to a few remarks 

 on the systems of divination which have existed . The 

 ancient Germans had consecrated white horses, from 

 whose snorting and neighing they drew favourable or 

 unfavourable signs. They also followed the guidance 

 of prophetesses, whom they called Alrunes. The 

 Greeks had their sortes Homericce, the Romans their 

 sortes rirgilianee ; and, in imitation of these, many 

 Christians, from the period of the third century, 

 adopted the sortes sanctorum a mode of judging of 

 the future by opening the Sacred Scriptures at random, 

 and forming an opinion from the passage on which 

 the eye happened to fall. (See Bibliomancy.) This 

 usage was early disapproved by the councils. Some 

 popes forbad it under penalty of excommunication. 

 The capitularies of Charlemagne, of 789 A. D., 

 also prohibit this mode of consulting the Psalms and 

 the Gospels; yet the sortes sanctorum continued 

 until the fourteenth century, and is not, even now, 

 altogether obsolete. ^^ 



In most countries of Europe, many of the old 

 forms of divination continue to be practised, some- 

 times from superstition, sometimes for amusement. 

 In fact, the love of having one's fortune told 

 is not confined to the ignorant, and the supersti- 

 tious. People who are above believing the pre- 

 dictions are still fond of prying, in sport, into the 

 mysteries of futurity. There are many names for 

 the different modes of prognosticating the future by 

 means of the varipus appearances- which nature and 

 art present, from the revolutions of the stars down 

 to the grounds of a coffee-cup ; as, astrology, aero- 

 mancy, meteoromancy , pyromancy, hydromancy, geo- 

 mancy, kieromancy, rhabdomancy, physiognomancy, 

 necromancy, bibliomancy, &c. Very lately, a lady at 

 I'aris, mademoiselle Lenormand, attracted much 

 attention by telling fortunes to persons of high rank ; 

 and Muller, in Suabia, was a celebrated prophet in 

 the time of Napoleon. It has been often observed, 

 that great politicians, men who have risen above 

 many of the prejudices of their age, and have even 

 disregarded important truths, have yet given them- 

 selves up to a superstitious trust in signs and divina- 

 tion. One reason may be, that they have peculiar 

 opportunities of seeing how many things are out of 

 the reach of human power, and must be left to for- 

 tune ; and an ambitious spirit refuses to doubt what 

 it strongly wishes. The works on this subject are 

 very numerous, including, as they do, the mystical 

 productions of the East, the Cabala (q. v.), the 

 treatises on astrology, witchcraft, &c., in the middle 

 ages, and all that modern times have produced, as 

 Jung Stilling's Theorie der Geisterkunde (Theory of 

 Demonology), Sir W. Scott's History of Demonology, 

 &c. See the articles Astrology, Gipsies, JVitch, &c. 



DIVING-BELL. To illustrate the principle of 

 this machine, take a glass tumbler, plunge, it into 

 water with the mouth perpendicularly downwards : 

 you will find that very little water will rise into the 

 tumbler, which will be evident if you lay a piece of 

 cork upon the surface of the water, and put the 

 tumbler over it ; for you will see, that, though the cork 

 should be carried far below the surface of the water, 

 yet its upper side is not wetted, the air which was in 

 the tumbler having prevented the entrance of the 

 water ; but, as air is compressible, it could not entirely 

 exclude the water, which, by its pressure, condensed 

 the air a little. 



The first diving-bell we read of hi Europe was tried 

 at Cadiz, by two Greeks, in the presence of Charles 

 V. and 10,000 spectators. It resembled a large 

 kettle inverted. The first of any note was made by Dr 

 Halley. It is most commonly made in the form of 

 a truncated cone, the smaller end being closed, and 

 the larger one open. It is so suspended that it may 

 sink full of air, with its open base downwards, and 

 as near as may be parallel to the horizon, so as to 

 close with the surface of the water. Mr Smeaton's 

 diving-bell, made in 1788, was a square chest of cast 

 iron, 4^ feet in height, 4 feet in length, and 3 feet 

 wide, and afforded room for two men to work in it. 

 It was supplied with fresh air by a forcing pump. 

 This was used with great success at Kamsgate. 

 Other contrivances have been used for diving-bells. 

 Within the last thirty years, the diving-bell has been 

 much employed to assist hi laying the foundations ot 

 buildings under water. A diving-bell, on an improved 

 principle, was constructed, in 1812, by the late 

 Mr Rennie, and employed in Ramsgate harbour, 

 where it answered so well, that the masonry was laid 

 with the utmost precision. From this period must be 

 dated a new era hi the construction of masonry under 

 water, the use of coffer dams being, in a considerable 

 degree, superseded. The diving-bell was, thence- 

 forward, employed by Mr Rennie in the construction 

 of all the great harbours which he projected. Round 

 bells of cast iron and copper have been occasionally 

 made for the pearl and coral fisheries of South Ame- 

 rica, and have been supplied by the Messrs Rennie 

 for most of the royal dock-yards in England, and 

 several of those in the colonies, for the pearl fishery at 

 Ceylon, for the repair of the works at Cronstadt, for 

 many places in Great Britain, and Ireland, &c. 



In plate XXVII. we have given various views of 

 the diving-bell used on the river Clyde. Fig 1. is a 

 sectional side elevation of the machine. A is an iron 

 chest open at the bottom but covered at the top, G. 

 Over the top is fastened a casing, either of wood, or, 

 what seems to be preferable, of sheet iron. This casing 

 is employed as a sort of coffer dam, hi order that the 

 water above the bell may be displaced, so that more 

 light may be admitted from above into the bell. A 

 section of the bell on a larger scale is shown hi figure 

 3. , where the seats are seen projecting from the sides 

 near the bottom. On these seats the divers stand, 

 but when any of them wish to go to the bottom they 

 step upon a projecting piece seen in the centre near 

 to the mouth of the bell. The lower portion of this 

 figure shows a ground view of the top of the bell, a a, 

 which is crossed by a strong iron bar and contains eight 

 round holes, into which glass lenses are fitted for the 

 transmission of light. To the upper side of this top is 

 attached (hi a manner which will be easily understood 

 by inspection of the figure) the chain which passes 

 over the pulley b, b, and is wrought by the crane, c, 

 by which arrangement the bell may be either raised 

 or depressed at pleasure. The bell, as will be seen 

 in fig. 1. passes through an opening in the barge, but 

 where the apparatus is to be used in very deep water 

 a better arrangement would be to suspend the bell 



