The diving suit, the object of the invention, is an apparatus designed to protect divers against the pressure of the water mass when they descend to great depths. In ordinary diving suits, the air, forced into the suit at a higher pressure than that exerted by the water outside, causes great fatigue of the lungs, sometimes even asphyxiation. The new suit overcomes these disadvantages. It is a complete armour (fig. 1, 2 and 3), articulated, on which one puts on a rubber suit. As the armour is not hermetically sealed, if just enough air is sent inside to breathe, the pressure of the water is exerted on the suit, which sticks to the armour, which supports all the effort without the operator being affected. The cuirass. – The body of the cuirass in chromium steel, is formed of two symmetrical parts opening on the middle of the chest and the back; they are bordered, on the circumference of their section, by a bead B, B…, thus doubling the width of this section; at the lower part of the cuirass, another external bead C overflows and brings the thickness of the cut to 18 millimetres. These metal swellings increase the solidity of the apparatus and make it possible to interpose between the two parts of the cuirass a thin rubber blade intended to prevent the sliding of the iron and to ensure a complete sealing of the part not covered by the costume. To join the two parts of the cuirass, The fasteners A, A are placed around the edge of the section. h 0 Fasteners. – These are short strips of metal brazed to one side of the cuirass on the outside and bolted to the other side (Figs. 9 and 10). The bolt hole in the armour is cut obliquely on the side of the section and widened on the other, so that the bolt does not bear the force of the pressure, when the pressure brings the two parts of the armour together, compressing the rubber strip K between them. The oblique cut of the hole is thus made so that when the bolt is screwed in, its edge, sliding on this inclined wall, brings the parts C as close as possible. Portholes. – These are the windows which will allow the man to steer himself.
Movement is provided by joints at the shoulder, elbow, hand, thigh and knee.
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!