Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 August 1889 — How to Make a Water Telescope. [ARTICLE]

How to Make a Water Telescope.

There are two things that every intelligent boy and girl ought to have—that is, a telescope and a microscope. Without the latter, the wonders of the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdom are hidden, nine times out of ten; and, with the former, the pleasure of gazing at the starry heavens is increased tenfold These two instruments need not be very costly or elaborate, and an. expenditure of a few dollars will afford pleasure and instruction which cannot be measured by money. But there is another realm which can be explored with as little expense and as great satisfaction as the earth and air. No doubt, very few people are aware that they can at a little expense construct an instrument with which they can plainly see what is going on under the water.

Fishermen generally are conversant v’ith this instrument, which they call a “water-glass,” but which might with more propriety be called a “water telescope.” However, that would amount to the same thing to a seafaring man, who always refers to a telescope as a “glass.” The Florida sponge-fishers use the instrument in their business, and could not get along very well without it. The water telescope may be made of wood or tin, as you prefer. The tin is better, but the wood is easier made, although both are of simple construction. Suppose we describe the w'ooden one first.

Take four strips of wood an inch thick, three feet long, and of a width widening from twelve inches at the top to twenty at the bottom. Make a tube from these pieces, taking care to make the seams water-tight w ith putty and paint. In the large end fix a sheet of glass, cemented firmly and made watertight, and leave the small end open. To make a tin water telescope, get a tinsmith to make for you (or make it yourself if you can) a funnel-shaped tin horn about three feet long, ten or twelve inches in diameter at the small end, and twenty inches in diameter at the large end. In the large end fix a sheet,of glass, and if you cannot use a round piece, make the large end of the funnel square.

That is all there is to make about the water teleScope, except that the inside should be stained black, and that it is advisable to attach weights or sinkers to the outside of the large end to make it easier to submerge. To use this telescope, sink the large end down in the water about two feet, and put your head in the small end and look.

You will be astonished at the plainness with which you will see all kinds of fish, water animals and plants, and at the depth to which your vision will penetrate. Of course you cannot see very far through troubled water any more than you could see the stars through the clouds, and besides it would not be very safe or pleasant to lean over the side of a boat with your head in a tube during the prevalence of a choppy sea. But during a calm, delightful summer excursion on the water, or boating or picnic parties, you can imagine how much such a contrivance would add to your pleasure, to say nothing of the instruction derived from studying the habits of the creatures of the water at home. And all this at a cost of twentv-five cents.