Frank W. Walters, who first lived in New Zealand and patented another invention in 1917 now patented a Submarine Armor in Canada. What he claim is: A submarine Armor having relatively movable arm and leg members connected by joints, each of said joints comprising a recessed boss provided with exterior screw threads on one of the members, a peripheral flange provided on the associated member and extending into said recess, annularly grooved rings, seated against the opposing faces of the two members and within said recess, engaging shoulders formed on the in contacting faces of the rings and said two members, bearing balls interposed between said rings and positioned in the respective grooves thereof, a union nut engaging the threads of said boss said nut having a flange element extending over the peripheral flange of the referred to member and inclosing the same -within said recess, and packing rings provided between the nut flange and the boss and flange of the respective members. Seattle 6th of May 1919
In an article about his success, Walters’ suit is described. The aluminium suit was actually built and dived to a depth of 396 ft (120 metres). The suit is made of 1-2 inch aluminium (~25 to 50 mm) and weighs 300 pounds. Walters attached 50 pounds of weights to sink the suit. According to the article, there was a pressure of 40 pounds/inch2 inside the suit and 170 pounds/inch2 outside, which translates to 2.7 bar on the inside and 11.7 bar on the outside. The fact that the newspaper published these figures is actually strange because at a depth of 396 ft, so at 120 metres, there is a pressure of 13 bar. The pressure of 11.7 bar described in the article corresponds in reality to a depth of 107 metres. If the internal pressure of the suit is 2.7 bar, this would mean that there is an overpressure (to prevent leakage?) but also that the suit is not an atmospheric suit and the diver will have to deal with the absorption of nitrogen in the blood and will have to decompress after some time. It is doubtful whether this information is accurate.
The suit was actually build and can be seen in the newspaper Logansport Pharos-Tribune, August 18, 1921, pictures thanks to Cybernetic Zoo
In 1922 Walter was also granted a patent in the United Kingdom.
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!