Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 133, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 June 1911 — DEEP SEA DIVERS. [ARTICLE]

DEEP SEA DIVERS.

Death Always Hovers Round Them While) They Toil. PERILS THEY HAVE TO FACE. The Awful Pressure'of Water and Atr That May Bury or Burst Them—The Hdlmet Telephone a Wonderful Aid In Work and In Times of Danger. It is surprising to learn bow many uses there are for divers. The navy, of coarse, employs many to set submarine mines and torpedoes and to attend to investigations of tbe condition of ships' bottoms. Bridge construction companies use them, as do those who build dams, waterworks and reservoirs. Waterworks in large cities keep a diver on their staff constantly. Wrecking companies need tbeir services. and the profession of underriver tunneling makes many demands on the time and skill of the man in armor. Since Smeaton in 1779 designed a pump to supply air to the diving bell little real improvement in the ret has been made, save in detail of helmet and clothes, until the invention of the telephone. The greatest advance ever made in the art. divers will tell you. is the combination of the telephone with the diving suit. Before its advent divers had to depend entirely upon pulls on the life line for communication with the surface and upon signs to each jjther when under water if two wished to communicate. Today the modern diving helmet is equipped with a telephone, and the diver can not only bear what Is said to him from the surface. advise those in charge of his pump as to whether the air is "coming right" or not, but he can communicate to a brother diver and hear the instructions sent to him from the surface. all of which facilities are of great assistance in the work. At first thought it may not seem so difficult a thing, this going down under water and breathing air sent in from a pump by a tube. Bnt the physical drawbacks to the work are enormous. For every ten feet a diver descends he sustains an additional pressure of four and a half pounds over every square inch of his body. What this means may be better understood when considering tbe greatest depth ever made by a diver-204 feet His body at that depth sustained a pressure of eightyeight and a half pounds to the square inch over and above the fifteen pounds always sustained when in the air.

Divers must descend very slowly, swallowing as they go; otherwise they may bleed at the nose and ears and even lose cbnsciousness. And they must ascend even more slowly than they descend, particularly when coming from great depths; otherwise they may literally burst from internal air pressure. At the least, too sudden a rise may cause an attack of that terrible disease known to tunnel workers called caisson disease, or the bends, in which air gets into tbe tissues under pressure and causes the most extreme torture. The diver, getting ready to descend, dotbes himself in very heavy underwear of guernsey or flannel, tbe drawers well secured to prevent slipping, and adds a pair of heavy woolen socks. If the water be cold two such suits may be worn. If the depth to be negotiated is great cotton soaked with oil is put in the ears or a heavy woolen cap pulled down over them. Shoulder pads, if worn to take the weight off the helmet, are next tied on. after which tbe diver wriggles into bis heavy suit of rubber and canvas. Next come the inner collar and the breastplate, which are secured with clamps to the rubber dress, the utmost care being taken in this operation not to tear or pinch tbe rubber. Finally the shoes are fitted on and the rubber gloves clamped to rings in the sleeves. The helmet is the last to go on, and never before the valves and telephone have been tested. Tbe attendants start to pomp as tbe helmet is clamped home. The helmet is attached to the pump with a rubber tube, which is canvas and wire protected. No diver descends, after the helmet is pat on. until be has tested the outfit and found that bis air supply is sufficient and the pomp working properly. He is supplied with a life line, with which he can signal should his telephone get out of order and by which he may be drawn to the surface should he become helpless for any reason. He most take great care when walking about on the bottom not to foul his life line or his air tube and for this reason most always retrace his steps exactly to his starting point if he has gone into a wreck or about any obstructions. For tbe same reason two divers working together must be careful not to cross each other’s path. Sometimes the life line may become so entangled in wreckage that It must he cut. and then there is danger of the diver not finding his way back to his boat or float, especially if tbe bottom Is muddy and foals the "seeing." Bat the greatest danger of all. of coarse, is that the tube be cut or tbe diver faint la either case he is in desperate straits. If the man handling tbe life line "feels" anything wrong be will ban! tbe diver up willy nflly and regmrdless of the severe bleeding {at nose and ears which will result ftiom too rapid a rise to the surface. But If the direr be inside a wreck or If bis life line gets tangled in wreckage such hauling would do no good. It is In sib nations like these that tbe slender connecting link 4>t telephone wire means so much to tbe men who risk their fives far beneath the surface of the water.—Sdentlfie American .. .