DREBBEL 422 DREDGINa Among the peoples of antiquity, dreams were regarded as direct mes- sages from the spiritual world, of -either divine or diabolical origin; their inter- pretation was elevated to the rank of a science. At the royal courts of Babylon and Egypt the interpretation of dreams was part of the duties of soothsayers. Pseudo-psychologists believed that dreams are caused by the flight of the soul to other regions, and that on its re- turn to the body it remembered what it had actually seen. Some persons have thought dreams the proof of the soul's immortality. This hypothesis formed the basis of the religion of Comenius and of Emanuel Swedenborg. Swedenborg strengthened the Church which he founded by his claim to have visited Paradise and his report of his experi- ences there. The North American In- thermometer which was named for him, and is sometimes erroneously said to be the discoverer of the telescope and mi- croscope. He died in London in 1634. DREDGING, the operation of remov- ing mud, silt and other deposits from the bottom of harbors, canals, rivers, docks, etc., by mechanical means. The steam-dredging machine now in common use is said to have been first applied by Boulton and Watt for use on the Weil at Sunderland, England, in 1796. It haa a succession of strong iron buckets on an endless chain running on a frama the lower end of which is vertically ad- justable so as to regulate the depth at which it works. The buckets tear up the matter at the bottom, raise it, and discharge it into barges or hoppers sta- tioned close to the dredging vessel. The OSGOOD DIPPER DREDGE dians regarded dreams as prophetic and often took them as solemn injunctions. Among more enlightened people there may be an inducement to action from the impression of a dream; here also, the consequence is the fulfilment of the prophecy. Such were the dreams of Judas Maccabseus, of Sulla, of Ger- manicus. It is said that the city of Carthage was rebuilt by Augustus Caesar in consequence of the dream of his uncle Julius. Of such a nature, too, were the dreams of the Emperor Julian and of Calpurnia; and such was the dream of Cromwell that he should be the greatest man in England. In all these, and a thousand more, the mere constant thinking excited the dream. See Freud, SiGMUND; PSYCHOANALYSIS. DREBBEL (dreb'bel), CORNELIUS, a fciutch philosopher; born in Alkmaar, Netherlands, in 1572. He invented the Suez Canal was excavated by means of a ladder dredge with a long chute and supporting girder. The material exca- vated was carried in boxes on a sort of tramway and tipped out on the bank. The excavating buckets are sometimes placed on the perimeter of a large wheel instead of on an endless chain. The so-called clamshell bucket consists of two parts hinged together v/hich de- scend through the water open and re- turn closed with its clutch of material amounting sometimes to five cubic yards. In order to work in clay or hard sand it is provided with teeth. In some cases the current of river or tides has been utilized in dredging channels. In bot- toms of mud or loose sand the steam pump or hydraulic dredger may be used. Great improvements have been made in hydraulic dredges, and some built in re- cent years for use in the Mississippi
