Diving suit

“ Could these suits contain human beings? And if so, who? It seemed incredible, for no diving-suit had ever been devised in which a man could descend to the depth of one mile, and live.
These four figures, whatever they were, came stolidly forward and took charge of the cart. One of the sharks swam up to them and appeared to talk to them with its hands. Then the sharks unhitched the two sea-serpents and led them to the rear, and Abbot saw them no more. ”

“ And there are dangers also in nude diving, even to those who have spent a lifetime about the water. Sharks and sting-rays and devil-fish there are in abundance, and many of them know the taste of diver’s flesh; on the other hand many a daring South Sea Islander could tell of a fierce combat more thrilling than even those pictured by Victor Hugo. One of the chief advantages of the diving-suit is that in case a shark comes along, the diver can bide his time until the fish is ready to leave, or he can frighten it away by ejecting air bubbles from the sleeve of his suit or by other demonstrations ”

“ Upon the helmet was also placed a small electric lamp, but of great power of penetration.
With heavy weights upon their feet, the wearers of this ingenious diving suit, having not to depend upon cord or life line, could remain at great depths and for a long period under the sea. ”

“ The small eyes at the top of the helmet are for securing the diver’s air pipe and life line in position and preventing them from swaying.
The Diving Dress is a combination suit which envelops the whole body from feet to neck. It is made of two layers of tanned twill with pure rubber between, and is fitted at the neck with a vulcanized india-rubber collar, or band, with holes punched in it corresponding to the screws in the breastplate. This collar, when clamped tightly between the bands and the breastplate by means of the nuts, ensures a watertight joint. ”

“ They were not even then out of the wood; for shortly afterwards they sighted another of the enemy’s ships, and again they had to dive and go on their way beneath the water; but eventually they reached their port safely, happy to have escaped, but chagrined at not having been able to do any damage to the foe.
Because we do not reap the benefits in daily life of the work of the diver, few of us give him much [171] thought; but for a hazardous, heroic vocation, that of the man in the diving suit is probably without equal. ”

“ For underwater work projects, the workman wears a waterproof suit with his head imprisoned in a metal capsule, while he receives air from above by means of force pumps and flow regulators.”
“That’s the standard equipment for a diving suit,” I said.
“Correct, but under such conditions the man has no freedom. He’s attached to a pump that sends him air through an india-rubber hose; it’s an actual chain that fetters him to the shore, and if we were to be bound in this way to the Nautilus, we couldn’t go far either.” ”

“ We haven’t tobacco enough to work this lagoon a month, and what’s to happen then?”
“No use bothering a month ahead,” replied Davis. “If worst comes to the worst, we’ll just have to do the diving ourselves. Get into your harness and down with you, to see how it works.”
Harman did, and an appalling rush of bubbles followed his descent, the suit was faulty. Tropical weather does not improve diving suits, and Harman was just got up in time. ”

“ This was the chemical generator, which furnished plenty of pure air for the diver for an indefinite period of time.
CHAPTER IX.
THE SUNKEN CITY. The diving-suits were a very clever invention. They were superior to the old style for the fact that the diver had free use of his limbs and was hampered by no life-line or tube.
34Frank gave instruction to Barney and Pomp to remain aboard the Diver and keep a good watch of the two divers all the while. Then he helped Wade to don his suit and put on his own.
They were now ready to leave the boat. ”

“ The divers become very expert, but they do not have the modern equipments of a diving suit. The Syrian divers in the Mediterranean go down naked with a rope attached to their waists and a stone attached to the rope to cause them to sink, together with a bag for carrying the sponges. ”

“ An hour afterward the raft and all the instruments necessary for the enterprise had drifted down to the bank where the boats were waiting.
The diving-dress is well known. By its means men can descend beneath the waters and remain there a certain time without the action of the lungs being in any way injured. The diver is clothed in a waterproof suit of India rubber, and his feet are attached to leaden shoes, which allow him to retain his upright position beneath the surface. ”

“ The Diving Sphere built for Deep Sea Salvage Operations
A common diver's suit does not protect the diver from hydraulic pressure. Only a flexible suit and a thin layer of air separates him from the surrounding water. This air must necessarily be of the same pressure as the surrounding water. The air that is pumped down to the diver not only serves to supply his lungs, but by entering his blood transmits its pressure to every part of his anatomy. As long as the external pressure is equalized by a corresponding pressure within him, the diver experiences no serious discomfort. ”

“ Do you boys want to come along?"
"Is it safe?" asked Mark, who was inclined to be cautious.
"As safe as any part of this under-sea voyage," replied the professor. "These diving suits are something I have not told you about," he went on. "They are my own invention. Besides the regular rubber suits there is an interlining of steel,—something like the ancient suits of chain mail—to withstand the great pressure of water. Then, instead of being dependent on a supply of air, pumped into the helmet from an apparatus in a boat on the surface, each person carries his own air supply with him." ”

“ The diving bell has this advantage over the dress, that several men can work in company; on the other hand, should an accident happen, more lives are involved. Some years ago the chain of a diving bell in use at a pier in Dover, England, got fouled in some way and its occupants found themselves in a most alarming predicament. However, a diver named William Wharlow, donning his suit, descended, crowbar in hand, and after several hours of hard work, succeeded in freeing the chain, when the diving bell was hauled up in safety. ”

“ A chap will dive all day for the fun of it and half a stick of tobacco, but you can do most of the diving yourselves and save on the business. There are the diving suits, two of them. Good as when I got them, and the pump’s in the boat there; she’s in that canoe house, it’s a Clarkson, in good order. Say, boys, you’ve no reason to sneeze over this deal. Here’s an island, a living larder, pigs and fowl and taro and fish and fruit for nix, a pearl lagoon not half worked, diving suits and pump and a bit of trade, and all for that frousty old brown boat of yours. ”

“ This bell may come in useful."
"Can't you use the special diving suits that you always used to carry?" the financial manager wanted to know.
"We might, if the water isn't too deep," replied Tom. "But you know there is a limit to how far down a man in even my kind of diving dress can go. With this diving bell a much greater depth can be reached. And this diving bell is not like any you have ever seen or read about. ”

“ From time to time attempts have been made to construct a diver's suit that will not yield331 to the pressure of the sea, so that the diver will not be subjected to the weight of the water about him, but can breathe air at ordinary atmospheric pressure. Curious armor of steel has been devised, with articulated arms and legs, in which the diver is completely encased. With the ordinary rubber suit, the diver usually has his hands bare, because he is almost as dependent upon the sense of touch as a blind man. ”

“ You see how much safer the diver is under these conditions. Most of the danger used to lie in accidents to the air tube. It might get entangled, or cut or bitten by a shark and then it was all up with the diver. Now he’s independent of that. He can work longer at a time and with much greater peace of mind.
“Then too he can see under water much better than he did in the old days. The head piece of this suit I’m talking of has four openings which are fitted with heavy glass, so that he can look out in front or on either side without shifting his position. ”

“ Thus the diver can control his specific gravity and rise or sink at will. In case by any chance the diver should inflate the dress inadvertently, and wish to get rid of the superfluous air quickly, he can do so by opening an emergency cock, which is fitted on the helmet. Plate glasses in gun-metal frames are also fitted to the helmet, two, one on each side, being permanently fixed, while one in front is made either to screw in and out, or to work on a hinged joint like a ship’s scuttle; the side glasses are usually protected by metal cross-bars, as is also sometimes the front glass. ”

“ The helmet contains a supply of compressed oxygen, and the exhaled breath is passed through a filter in the breast-piece which deprives it of its carbonic acid, while the nitrogen goes back into the helmet to be mixed with the oxygen, the supply of which is under the diver's own control, and to be breathed over again. A diver has remained for an hour and a half under 35 feet of water in this dress. The safe limit for diving is 200 to 300 feet, the deepest dive in this country being 210 feet; but great care must be exercised in bringing the diver to the surface. ”

“ The fact is, a diver has quite as much as he can attend to with the burden of his suit (about a hundred and seventy-five pounds) , and his two lines to watch and keep from kinks and entanglements. Touch one of these lines, and you touch his life. Fasten a new line to him, or two new lines, and you enormously increase his peril. Imagine yourself stumbling about in a dark forest, with a man strapped on your back, and several ropes dragging behind you among trees and rocks, each separate rope being to you as breath and blood! That is precisely the diver's case. ”

“ Although dress-diving has the advantage over naked diving that it gives a supply of air [193] to breathe while at work, it also entails dangers and difficulties from which the old method is free. An imperfect supply of air may cause the bursting of a blood-vessel. Fouling of the lines might not only cut off the air supply entirely, but prevent the man, anchored by his heavy dress under twenty fathoms of water more or less, from signalling the man at the life-line. ”

“ With the use of this apparatus another advantage is gained. When the diver is down the air he expires rises in bubbles to the surface, and by the regularity with which they rise his condition can be easily known. If they cease, it is known that something must have happened, and that he should be instantly hauled up. In the old diving dress the expired air passed into the space between his body and the clothing and out at a valve in the helmet, but as the excess of air supplied to him escaped in this way also, it could not be told from this whether the diver was alive or dead. ”

“ The helmet diver is indispensable in connexion with harbour and dock construction, bridge-building, pearl and sponge fishing, wreck raising and the recovery of sunken cargo and treasure. Every ship in the British navy carries one set or more of diving apparatus, for use in ease of emergency, for clearing fouled propellers, cleaning valves or ship’s hull below the water line, repairing hulls if necessary, and recovering lost anchors, chains, torpedoes, &c. ”

“ When the diver reaches the sea bottom he tears off as much sponge within reach as possible, or picks up pearl shells, as the case may be, and then pulls the rope to indicate to the man in the boat that he wishes to be hauled up. But so exhausting is the work, and so severe the strain on the system, that, after a number of dives in deep water, the men often become insensible, and blood sometimes bursts from nose, ears and mouth. ”

“ In addition to the sense of security given in time of accident, it is productive of great amusement at race meets and exhibitions, and never fails to excite admiration and wonder in the onlooker. Of course, this can be practised with an old or cast-off suit.
Practise first with a coat, then with a coat and waistcoat; next add trousers, and last the shoes and stockings. This will gradually accustom the beginner to the extra weight of the clothes.
In case of an immersion in clothes, with no help in sight, the sooner the swimmer removes his clothes the longer he can support himself. ”

“ The novice when making his first descent beneath the waves in a diving dress is apt to find himself confronted with numerous surprises. In the first place he discovers that the dress itself, which, when he stood upon the deck, had appeared such a cumbersome and altogether unwieldy affair, becomes as light as any feather as soon as he is below the surface. ”

“ The divers are mostly old men, vigorous and healthy in appearance, thus dispelling the general notion that deep-sea diving weakens the body and shortens life. We were told of one diver, employed during the year 1856, in the pearl fishery, who was so stout and fat, that in addition to the ordinary diver's stone, he had to make fast a considerable weight to his body, in order to sink himself in the water. ”

“ Most of the underwater boats to-day sink rapidly on an even keel. The old method of depressing the nose of the boat so as to make a literal dive has been abandoned, partly because of the inconvenience it caused to the men within who suddenly found the floor on which they were standing tilted at a sharp angle, and partly because the diving position proved to be a dangerous one for the boat. ”