Divers was pre-eminently an experimental chemist and rarely occupied with the theoretical study of chemical questions. He greatly encouraged the spirit of experimental research among his pupils including Jōkichi Takamine, who was the first to prepare pure adrenaline, and Masataka Ogawa who discovered "nipponium" (later found to be rhenium). By advice of Divers, M. Chikashige of the Kyoto Imperial University studied the atomic weight of Japanese tellurium in 1896, in the hope that this tellurium, which contrary to the European tellurium is associated with sulphur and not with any heavy metal, might yield an atomic weight in conformity with the periodic table. No difference was observed, however.