Diving Helmet - History

History

Further information: First appearance of diving helmets

Augustus Siebe is known as the father of Diving. In the year 1837 German-born inventor Augustus Siebe, then living in England, developed a Diving Helmet which was sealed to a watertight, air-containing rubber suit. The closed diving suit, connected to an air pump on the surface, becomes the first effective standard diving dress, and the prototype of hard-hat rigs still in use today. In his obituary Siebe is described as the father of diving.

Siebe Gorman & Co was notable for developing the “closed” diving helmet of the standard diving dress and associated equipment. As the helmet was sealed to the diving suit, it was watertight, unlike the previous “open” helmet systems—which would flood if inverted. The new equipment was safer and more efficient, and revolutionised underwater work from the 1830s.

However, Alexander McKee proposed that brothers John and Charles Deane were the true inventors, and that Siebe was the leading manufacturer of their designs. This is also confirmed by the fact that Siebe's patents post dated the Deane brothers own and other emulators such as the Sadler company.

Commercial diver and inventor Joe Savoie is credited with inventing the neck dam in the 1960s, which made possible a new era of lightweight helmets, including the Kirby Morgan Superlite series (an adaption of Morgan's existing "Band Mask" into a full helmet.) Savoie chose not to patent his invention because of his desire to improve diver safety.