AN INGENIOUS INVENTION.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5557, 8 December 1879, Page 3

AN INGENIOUS INVENTION.

;■- • Some ' j interesting ■. experiments r , have , -lately- been = made in "raising sunken: vea-| | sels," '-'or other- ' 'su braerg^dj i ob j ects> ■ f -by : ; a \ p'lari' invented^by ( '& Viennese -engineer, i . The JBerlin 'iribune says that the --agent ' eriipioyed.to 'lift^ the sunken objects isl carbonic acid, gas, /generated below' 'the . surface. -of. tlie ivatjer. In ah . otherwise! .^raptyy galloon j a. bottle i. of .sulphvirjc'acid "is placed, embedded ; ,in a q,uaniity .'pi iißixMtit'B salts, and an , arrangement "i? pro-i vided by which the bottle can be broken! at pleafmre. The balloon, empty with! the exception of the bottle. : . and; the salts, is taken down by > a diver andi securely attached to the object to be; raised. The bottle 13 then broken, and the sulphuric acid thus set free percolates the salts and generates carbonic acid gas,' which inmates the balloon, and after a| time causes it to rise V to the surface; bringing with it the object attached to iti The trials which, have been made with this:new apparatus have as yet been only 011. a comparatively small scale, but they are stated to have been, so far, eminently successful.; ..A) small ..vessel, weighing several hundredweight, was sunk in 60 feot of water, a diver was sent down and attached the'ballbon to it, and in a- very short time the machine appeared on the •surface of the water bringihefthe.vesserw.ith it. On another <=>ccftsi6tt^five sacks filled with sand were thrown overboard in 50 feet, of water, and in a few minutes were similarly recovered. . ' „