A New Diving Dress.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXI, Issue 6695, 22 September 1896, Page 3

A New Diving Dress.

SOME REMARKABLE PERFORMANCES. ; The Melbourne Argus gives the following account of a remarkable new diving dress, the invention of an elderly gentleman, a resident of South Melbourne The Buohanan-Gordon diving dreas has

passed the experimental stage. Already in the first crude model of the Invention divers have reached a depth which would Jbe classed as impossible. To pat the question in a nutshell, the depth to which a diver can descend in the ordinary dress is regulated by the pressure which he can stand on his body. On an average the extreme depth attained by the divers employed in the pearl fisheries is 13 to 14 fathoms. Divers in the Royal Navy have reached a depth of 20 fathoms, but this was merely a dip, and the man was immediately hauled up. In the BuchananGordon diving dress, under the most adverse conditions of weather, the diver has gone down without any inconvenience to a depth of 27i fathoms. The official record of this remarkable trial reads as follows :—" On October »2nd, 1894, we went outside Port Phillip, and anchored off Barwon Heads in 27J fathoms (165ffc). The diver descended to the bottom. We spoke the pilot schooner . I asked them what depth they made the soundings. They gave it as 28 fathoms. We told them we had got a man on the bottom. . . . At the fourth trial during the operation no air was pumped down for 20 minutes, and on returning to the surface the diver stated that he felt no inconvenience, as the dress was quite capable of holding air enough without pumping for much longer." Put into a single sentence the theory of Mr Gordon's invention is a dress which in itself withstands the tremendous pressure of great depths, enabling the diver to breathe a normal air pressure. It is in effect a suit of armour which defies all assaults, yet enables the wearer to move about with the utmost ease. The principal part in the helmet, which descends to the waist in one piece of solid copper, and weighs no less than 2§cwt, while the dress weighs scwt. The arms and the lower half of the dress consist of a series of spiral springs covered with waterproof material, which at the same time give strength and mobility. These springs are made of Delta metal, a phospor bronze of immense strength. By a series of ingenious arrangements the suit can be adapted to the height of the diver, and there is a jointed brass support running along the outside of the legs, which is intended to prevent the horrible accidents caused by the upward pressure of the water, which is often so great as to jamb the unfortunate diver against the bottom of his helmet, smash his shoulder bones, and then drive his legs through his body. Mr Gordon will next week proceed to Hobart to carry out a series of experiments in deeper water than can be found about Port Philip. He is confident of reaching a depth of 33 fathoms easly, which means that the wreck track of the English Channel, which attains a maximum depth of 31 fathoms, can be reached. H.M.S. Yictoria, in which Admiral Tryon went down, lies in the Mediterranean at a depth of 70 fathoms. Mr Gordon is confident that he could easily reach her.