How to walk underwater
Date
6 March 1689
Creator
Edmond Halley (1656 - 1742, British) , Astronomer
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
p4
Material
Dimensions
height (page): 197mm
width (page): 319mm
width (page): 319mm
Subject
Description
A drawing on the back of a document by Edmond Halley describing his idea of a diving bell on wheels, so that a diver can move around while being underwater. The drawing does not seem to be directly related: it depicts a man-sized figure in relation to a pulley.
Transcription
To walk on the bottom of a considerable depth of water and to be there at the Liberty to act, or manage ones self to the full advantage as if one hadd upon the drei ground, is without doubt a contrivance of great use in the saving things left in shipps or otherwise under water.
Transcribed by the Making Visible project
Transcribed by the Making Visible project
Object history
At the meeting of the Royal Society on 6 March 1689, 'Halley read a Paper of his own concerning a diving Engine he had contrived so as to be moveable by the person that [c]ould goe under water, and yet contain Air enough for a man to be a very considerable time under water; which was by putting a pair of weighty wheeles under a Diving bell of a considerable capacity so as the weight of the whole might be nearly aequiponderate with water, and according to the depth intended a quantity of compressed Air in Vessels to be carried down so as to drive out the water, whereby a Man might have his Bell as a house over his head, and stand on the bottom almost drie' (JBO/8/259).
Related fellows
Edmond Halley (1656 - 1742, British) , Astronomer
Associated place