So rich a prize has naturally not failed to attract daring spirits, among whom was Giuseppe Pino. This inventor has produced many devices, the most notable among them the hydroscope, which may best be described as a huge telescope for peering into the depths of the sea. A large circular tank floats on the top of the water. From the centre of its bottom hangs a series of tubes fitting one into the other, so that the whole series can be shortened or lengthened at will. Through the tubes a man can descend to the chamber at their lower extremity, in the sides of which are twelve lenses specially made by Saint Gobain, of Paris, which act as submarine telescopes.
Pino's hydroscope has been at work for some time in Vigo Bay, its operations closely watched by a Spanish war vessel, which will exact 20 per cent. of all treasure recovered. While the hydroscope acts as an eye, the lifting of an object is accomplished by attaching to it large canvas bags furnished with air-tight internal rubber bladders. These have air pumped into them till its pressure overcomes that of the water outside, and the bag then rises like a cork, carrying its load with it. An "elevator"—nine sacks fixed to one frame—will raise twenty-five to thirty tons.
So far Cavaliere Pino has salvaged old Spanish guns, cannon-balls, and pieces of valuable old wood; and presently he may alight on the specie which is the main object of his search.
Another Spanish wreck, the Florida, which was a unit of the Spanish Armada, and sank in Tobermory Bay, the Isle of Mull, has many times been attacked by divers. The last attempt made to recover the treasure which that ill-fated vessel was reputed to bear is that of the steam lighter Sealight, which employed a very powerful sand pump to suck up any objects which it might encounter on the sea-bottom. Many interesting relics have been raised by the pumps and attendant divers—coins, bones, jewels, timbers, cannon, muskets, pistols, swords, and a compass, which is so constructed that pressure on the top causes the legs to spread. One of the cannon, fifty-four inches long, has a separate powder chamber, the shot and wad still in the gun, and traces of powder in the chamber. It is curious that what we usually consider so modern an invention as the breech-loading cannon should be found side by side with stone balls. The heavier objects were, of course, raised by divers. In this quest also the treasure deposit has not yet been tapped.
[CHAPTER XVI]
THE HANDLING OF GRAIN
THE ELEVATOR — THE SUCTION PNEUMATIC GRAIN-LIFTER — THE PNEUMATIC BLAST GRAIN-LIFTER — THE COMBINED SYSTEM
THE ELEVATOR
On or near the quays of our large seaports, London, Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, Hull, Leith, Dublin, may be seen huge buildings of severe and ugly outline, utterly devoid of any attempt at decoration. Yet we should view them with respect, for they are to the inhabitants of the British Isles what the inland granaries of Egypt were to the dwellers by the Nile in the time of Joseph. Could we strip off the roofs and walls of these structures, we should see vast bins full of wheat, or spacious floors deeply strewn with the material for countless loaves. The grain warehouses of Britain—the Americans would term them "elevators"—have a total capacity of 10,000,000 quarters. Multiply those figures by eight, and you have the number of bushels, each of which will yield the flour for about forty 2-lb. loaves.