The Carmagnolle brothers (Theodore and Alphonse) already in 1882 built the world famous diving suit with a large number of viewing windows similar to this patent. However, the construction differs from the suit that was patented by Theodore in 1903. It is remarkable that probably also in 1882 the joints had to be covered with a waterproof material to prevent leakage. It is also remarkable that the air was supplied from the surface with one hose and had to be released to the environment via a valve. How with 1 bar of pressure in the suit at a claimed depth of 100 metres the atmospheric carbon dioxide-rich gas should be released to the environment via a valve is unclear. What is certain is that this suit shows great similarities with the 1882 suit. It is even possible that this is the only officially registered patent of the Carmagnolle suit because the patents mentioned in the museum but also by several other sources can no longer be found.
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!