ANTI-PARALYSIS

Hutt News, Volume 12, Issue 10, 3 August 1938, Page 2

ANTI-PARALYSIS

NEW DIVING ISTJIT Just before a projected test at Tlie Spit it was found that the new antiparalysis diving - suit, the invention of a Sydney man, 'had been slashed with a sharp instrument. Had the cut not been found, the suit would have burst under water ami the diver might have been suffocated. The suit, which is claimed to revolutionise present methods of deepsca diving, is now kept under lock and key, and a police guard has been requsted whenever the suit is brought ou!. for use. If the suit does all that is claimed for it, location of treasure in wrecked s'bips, throughout the world will be simplified and submarine research would receive a fillip. •With the. idea of thoroughly testing the suit, an attempt will be made to local c the wreck of the Cumberland, whit-li was mimed off Gabo Island during the war. The wreck is lying in 47 fatlhoms, and if the diver can bring up some identifiable portion it will be regarded as concrete evidence of the suit's efficiency. Navy officials are watching thici process of the test closely, because the suit, if successful, will permit diving operations at great depth with freedom of movement at present unknown. Experts have found that paralysis is caused, not by the pressure of the water outside the diving suit, but by the pressure of air that has to be forced into the suit to resist the water pressure. Tluei new suit is constructed in two compartments. The outer is subjected to air pressure, while air at the normal I surface pressure is pumped into the I inner compartment, in which the diver | breathes The secret of the invention, it is said, lies in the construction of the outlet value of the inner compartment. Preliminary tests in Sydney Harbour and during pearling operations off Thursday Island, it is claimed, have shown that the value is efficient.