History
Further information: First appearance of diving helmetsAugustus 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.
Read more about this topic: Diving Helmet
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“And now this is the way in which the history of your former life has reached my ears! As he said this he held out in his hand the fatal letter.”
—Anthony Trollope (18151882)
“The myth of independence from the mother is abandoned in mid- life as women learn new routes around the motherboth the mother without and the mother within. A mid-life daughter may reengage with a mother or put new controls on care and set limits to love. But whatever she does, her childs history is never finished.”
—Terri Apter (20th century)
“In the history of the United States, there is no continuity at all. You can cut through it anywhere and nothing on this side of the cut has anything to do with anything on the other side.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (18381918)