1898 James J Devine

IntroDB
James J Devine

James J Devine patented a diving suit with a fish-like appereance. The main purpose was to transport a “torpedo” underwater. There was also fin shape reversible in direction for walking on land or swimming. Devine’s patent 609085 was not actually build. The diver was submitted to the water pressure therefore it was not a real armored suit. The idea of placing torpedos was later used in WWI and WWII

The patent from Devine can be found here: https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/f2/ee/fa/f865d43976bae7/US609085.pdf

Fish suit01

Fish suit02

JW

Therebreathersite was founded by Jan Willem Bech in 1999. After a diving career of many years, he decided to start technical diving in 1999. He immediately noticed that at that time there was almost no website that contained the history of closed breathing systems. The start for the website led to a huge collection that offered about 1,300 pages of information until 2019. In 2019, a fresh start was made with the website now freely available online for everyone. Therebreathersite is a source of information for divers, researchers, technicians and students. I hope you enjoy browsing the content!