Diving bell
Date
1783
Creator
Unknown, Engraver
After
Charles Spalding (1738 - 1783, British) , Mechanical engineer
Object type
Library reference
31094
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 210mm
width (print): 130mm
width (print): 130mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Section of a diving bell, with two figures of air vessels. The diving bell is shown with the air cock E opened, ‘for passing the phlogisticated air from the bell, immediately into the external water’.
The accompanying text describes an invention ‘constructed on a small scale, but on the same principles with that of Doctor Halley, during part of the summer, and autumn of 1775’. The bell was intended to be used in wreck recovery of the ‘Peggy’, lost in a severe storm off the Farne Islands, Northumberland, England.
Plate illustrating the paper ‘A Bounty of Twenty Guineas was given to Mr. Spalding, of Edinburgh, for his improvement on the Diving Bell, 1776’, Transactions of the Society, instituted at London, for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce… [Transactions of the Royal Society of Arts] v.1, (1783) pp.220-238.
Inscribed below: ‘SECTION of Mr. Spalding’s improved Diving Bell’.
Charles Spalding (1738-1783) British confectioner, mechanical engineer and salvage expert, died while diving on the wreck of the Belgioso in the Irish Sea.
Edmond Halley (1656-1742), British astronomer, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1678.
The accompanying text describes an invention ‘constructed on a small scale, but on the same principles with that of Doctor Halley, during part of the summer, and autumn of 1775’. The bell was intended to be used in wreck recovery of the ‘Peggy’, lost in a severe storm off the Farne Islands, Northumberland, England.
Plate illustrating the paper ‘A Bounty of Twenty Guineas was given to Mr. Spalding, of Edinburgh, for his improvement on the Diving Bell, 1776’, Transactions of the Society, instituted at London, for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce… [Transactions of the Royal Society of Arts] v.1, (1783) pp.220-238.
Inscribed below: ‘SECTION of Mr. Spalding’s improved Diving Bell’.
Charles Spalding (1738-1783) British confectioner, mechanical engineer and salvage expert, died while diving on the wreck of the Belgioso in the Irish Sea.
Edmond Halley (1656-1742), British astronomer, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1678.
Associated place