of Mr. Steele's Dlving-Bell. 2 1 3 



up," which was done : the water-tight cover was unscrewed, 

 and he came out, evidently very much gratified by the success 

 of his first experiment. 



He next took his seat in the open bell, and a " bell-man " 

 took the place he had just ceased to occupy. I was informed 

 that Mr. Steele had selected this man for his steadiness, having 

 been down with him before while he was making some experi- 

 ments with a common diving-bell. The communication be- 

 tween persons descending in this manner is by writing : they 

 write upon tablets, and mutually exhibit them at the window 

 in the partition. They descended : the bell-man described 

 what he saw to the persons above ; and after they had been 

 under water for some time, when Mr. Steele chose to ascend, 

 he intimated his desire to him, and he immediately communi- 

 cated the order that the bell should be raised. After they 

 came out of the bell, preparations were made for an experi- 

 mental proof of the theory which I have alluded to, as leading 

 in its application to such remarkable consequences. 



An air-tight chamber above water, with a window like the 

 one already described, was connected by a flexible pipe with 

 the open diving-bell: the bell-man took his seat in this, 

 one of the engineer's workmen went into the communicating 

 chamber, and Mr. Steele himself, taking his tablets and pencil, 

 went into the chamber above water, into which he was imme- 

 diately fastened by an air-tight cover. The bell was lowered 

 under water, and of course the chamber above was filled 

 through the pipe with condensed air. 



At this moment a novel and complex system of communi- 

 cating by conversation and writing was thrown into action, 

 instead of signals by the strokes of a hammer. Mr. Steele in 

 the air-chamber above held conversation with the bell-man be- 

 low, and the man in the communicating chamber below con- 

 versed with the persons upon the deck of the vessel. A gentle- 

 man stood close to the chamber above, and he and Mr. Steele 

 exhibited writings to each other through the window. The lat- 

 ter wrote among other things, that he had just asked the man 

 below " if he was anxious to be heaved up," and that he had been 

 answered in the negative. The man then made some observations 

 about the noise in the bell caused by the rush of the condensed 

 air through the valve, and about some other circumstances 

 bearing relation to the experiment. At this time Mr. Steele 

 required some paper ; and a sheet tightly rolled was given in 

 to him through a cylinder passing through the side of the 

 chamber. This was furnished with two cocks, one on the in- 

 side, and the other on the outside ; so that the paper was trans- 

 mitted without the escape of the air. Soon after this, I ob- 

 served 



