SENSATIONS OF A DIVING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9229, 17 June 1893, Page 2 (Supplement)

SENSATIONS OF A DIVING.

4» CURIOUS STATEMENTS BY THE AQUARIUM DIVER. Prop£SSOb Buknuam, who is engaged at tho Royal Aquarium to perform the great diving feat from outside the roof to it tank of water, had a talk recently with a representative of an English paper, on diving and feats of daring generally. The profeasor was unfoignedly angry about newspapers calling upon the authorities to put a stop to his "dangerous" performance. " Dangerous said ho, rather warmly. " There is no danger about my feat. It is a valuable feat, and may teach many people how to save their liven in case of lire." " Then, by all moans, let us know how it is done." " Simply by dropping with the body perfectly stiff, legs and feet close together, and arms extended horizontally.' " tiupposo one turned over sideways." "If the body is kept rigid, a man cannot turn over. Let him look upwards and extend the arms and step out feet first, and no man or woman will turn over in the air. If a man looks down or turns his head, ho may tiit over, but if he keeps rigid, the resistance of the air makes him till his lungs so rapidly that his inhaling keeps the body light, and tiio extended arms assist. When I do the thing, 1 fill my lungs before lotting go. The breath 1 take in is sufficient for seven seconds respiration, and genorally the lungs are empty the moment I touch the water, then they immediately refill, and I have enough air to swim some distance under water, without any inconvenience. The first fow yards of the descent, you can hear the air whistle past the oars. Twenty feet from the water, the whistling ceases." "Why?" "Because," said ho "you begin to FALL, MORK SLOWLY." The representative ox plained to the professor the law of two approaching bodies gradually increasing in velocity. " All I know," said Burnham, " is that if I drop 130 feet 1 strike the water with less force than when I drop 50 feet, and I sink a less distance into the water with a long drop than a short one." Here the assistance of Mr. Ritchie was called in. Air. Ritchie said, "The thing is a mystery to mo. Burns, Beaune, and other of our divers all toll mo the same tiling." "You know, Mr. Burnham," said the representative, "if you are right in saying you decrease your speed in descending, you have only to throw off from a few thousand feet high and remain in midair. Now you can't believe that, can you ?" " No. Rut I know what I say is what I have found out." The diving professor's information was interesting, and doubtless accurately described his sensations, though it is clear he and his brother professors aro unable properly to analyse the curious information their remarkably intrepid experiments have elicited. In the course of further conversation, Professor Burnham expressed tho opinion that the eecrot of success in the feat lies in temperate living and keeping tho body in a perfectly healthy condition. Ho maintains that he can teach any man or woman to imitate the drop successfully in a fortnight, and says if firemon carried a not which could bo held on four corner poles, nine feet high, they could safely catch any person leaping, after the manner he describes, from tho height of the Monument. On Friday, May 5, Professor Burnham varied his performance by dropping feet foremost into tho tank beneath. He was hauled by a rope through an opening in the roof to a small platform several feet above, and from thence, after carefujjy poising himself, he came down, his body apparently rigid, until it touched the water 130 feet below. Ho emerged from the tank perfectly uninjured by his tremendous fall, and, running round the stalls, bowed his acknowledgments of the cheers that greeted the accomplishment of his task.