LEAVING THE DIVERS FAR BEHIND

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 114, 10 November 1934, Page 25

LEAVING THE DIVERS FAR BEHIND

The depth of 3028 ft reached by*r. Beebe in his bathysphere has made all i other deep-water diving records seem liko child's play. Until the American scientist began exploring the life, of the ocean'deeps, 110 man had ever dared to go below 71 fathoms, or 426ft'. i It was at'this depth that tho salvag-1 ing of gold from the liner Egypt wasi 'directed by the Italian.divers of the i Artiglio, writes Douglas Capper in the 1 ' '.Xews-Chronicle." I Their "feat was made possible only by I the use of tho modern rigid typo of 1 "shell'/ diving-clress. Like Dr. Beebe lin his steel- ball, -they acted merely as observers as they, swung in their steel chambers,at the end of a cable below i their ship. "Their "eyes, and not their 'hands,- were needed. Although some types of the "shell" dress allow the diver to operate mechanical" "fingers" froi* inside his 1 armour, the work he is able'to perform in this way is strictly limited. So fai, 1 with all its disadvantages, no satisfac--1 tory substitute has yet been invented for the older kind of flexible rubber suit —the diving-dress with the' fascin- j ating copper helmet and the leaden-1 soled boots. I | Probably the record depth, at which1 manual work has ever been carried out! ; was during tho salving of silver bullion : from tho Skyro, off the Spanish coast. Working at 170-180 ft down, tho diver' had to withstand a piossure of 931b, per square inch on his body, and ho eventually spent mariy months in hospital in consequence. , Unlike tho divei in the "shell" diess, who is able to bieathe normally, within his armour, the wearer of the flexible suit has to breathe .what is ( literally compressed air. Tho deeper he goes the greater must be tho com-' pression.l Unless the pressure of air, 'inside his suit (and theiefoie inside hib lungs) is equal to the pressure of water outside, he will be "squeezed,'" as it is, called. 'And if the pressure outside is suddenly increased by a" fall into deeper water, or from some otlier cause, he will be crushed like an Ogg--shell —or worse. ' Danger ■ does not , ODd, by r any means, with the maintenance of the necessary air pressure. Through the

continual breathing of cbmpressed air (i

the body becomes saturated -with, nitrogen; and should'the diver rise too quickly- from deep'water/; the nitrogen is liable to Jorm bubbles inside him in , its haste..to escape,, from his body. iDeath; paraiysis;' or,; ;at' the least, the agony of "bends"'(diver's^ palsy) will be the result;; ■'■:•. :,n-;-::-; .., ,Tp obviate.)these .risks," exhaustive tests were) carried put' some years ago. .A'table'-ivasdraTvniip which gives the safe rate ofaScentfor-various periods from-diffeernt ■aepths.'-'lt was found, for. example, that,, after, spending one •hour* at "a depth of ;200ftj ineludingthe time taken 'for Ms ' descent, a diver needed two' hours for. 'his upward journey. And if ie; cared toTstay at work for an extra fifty minutes he would have'to spend no. r less';th,an four hours on his way. up.,; ,'.,..-, . ; The short periods, for , which a deepwater diver can work, compared with the time lost ih; lowering and raising ihim, is one of •. the-handicaps of the flexible type of dress.. Jor the diver himself there isi the.wearisome business of idly. waiting at stipulated intervals, on a rope or a : staging,'Sintil he can safely emerge ;aboy6 the' surface. Recently the waiting has been made less irksome'for-him* by the use of a. ■bottomless steel cylinder, which is lowered, like a'divingrbeli, with an attendant inside to meotMiinv in deep water, its pocket of compressed air he may. have,.his,, helmet removeu and enjoy small comforts.^ .'AJ-njuchxmore important part of the equipment of deep-water vessels is the :recbmpression? chamber. In this "iron, doctor" men ->yho have ascended too.rapidly prd;mptly_ placed ;in a suitable air-pressure which is gradually. reduced???Many| lives have •been saved by/its:aid," ? The cpinpres/sed-aJr difficulty, after all,' is only ione^risk among many. Divers have had their aifpipes cut or their suits'burst;''ahd^ more than one .man' has iboen^.sucked" into a pipe or buried. under"'iieavy falls Tof mud. And l;i«t the chill».of< swinterVsea| thdre is al■Vays the chance ?of pneumonia, as a less sensational danger. -.'i ■ Certainly-the:, deep ; water diver has quite enough potential trouble without the giant octopus that novelists and film scenarios thrust upon..: him. '