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OBITUARIES For the full versions of articles in this section see bmj.com Christian Lambertsen Invented scuba gear for combat It was summer 1940 in Cleveland, Ohio. Christian Christian James Lambertsen died recently at navy was a flop. L ambertsen persevered, shifting Lambertsen was wearing a breathing mask and home, in Newton Square, Pennsylvania, aged 93. his focus from life saving to military application, standing beside a canary and dog inside an airtight He was born on 15 May 1917 in Westfield, New requiring a major redesign shown in 1942. The chamber. With the local press and fire department Jersey, and was raised in nearby Scotch Plains. army’s Office of Strategic Services, the predeces- in attendance, the medical student was to demon- He spent summers at sor to the Central Intel- strate his own invention: a Lambertsen amphibi- the nearby Atlantic ligence Agency, was ous respiratory unit, an early version of scuba gear shoreline, becom- interested. After earn- (self contained underwater breathing apparatus). ing an expert swim- ing his medical degree Lambertsen already had successfully shown mer. After earning an in 1943, Lambertsen its underwater capabilities. Now he would show associate degree at a was assigned to the that it could protect against a hazardous atmos- junior college, he won office’s maritime unit phere. Oxygen was removed from the chamber a scholarship to Rut- to improve his appa- and replaced with cyclopropane, a flammable gers University in New ratus and train swim- anaesthetic gas, according to Richard D Vann, a Brunswick, New Jersey, mers to use it. diving historian and professor emeritus in anaes- earning a bachelors After the war, Lam- thesia at Duke University school of medicine in degree in 1939. bertsen joined the Durham, North Carolina. The canary, as expected, At medical school University of Penn- fell unconscious from its perch, then the dog, then, that September one of sylvania’s department unexpectedly, Lambertsen. Firefighters broke into his classes was respira- of pharmacology. In the chamber to rescue the unconscious inventor. tory physiology, where 1948 he helped train The problem, Professor Vann said, was that cyclo- students learnt about H is invention, which did not emit bubbles new élite underwater propane had penetrated the latex breathing bags. oxygen and carbon demolition teams, later dioxide by doing exer- underwater, could be used for covert to be called navy Seals Innocence, ignorance, and confi dence cises such as breathing military missions into enemy territory (“sea, air, and land Professor Vann, later a friend of Lambertsen, said hypoxic gas to unconsciousness and conduct- teams”). In 2000 the Seals honoured him with that the inventor described the event as a shining ing breath holding contests to feel the effects of the title “father of US combat swimming.” Also example of “the innocence, ignorance, and con- hypoxia and hypercapnia, Professor Vann said. in 1948 Lambertsen converted an abandoned fidence of youth” and as proof that “he had nine Lambertsen applied this knowledge, first experi- altitude chamber into a positive pressure thermal lives.” Indeed, Lambertsen flirted with death on menting underwater using a bag for rebreathing laboratory, which became a global magnet for several occasions during diving tests in the 1940s supplied with fresh air from a bicycle pump above. physiological research in undersea and aerospace as he doggedly improved his invention. Carbon dioxide accumulation in the bag was a environments. In 1968 he became the founding After the chamber demonstration, Lambertsen problem that he solved by inserting a small scrub- director of the university’s institute for environ- returned to the University of Pennsylvania School ber used in anaesthesia equipment. mental medicine, retiring in 1987, but remaining of Medicine. The second world war was raging in Lambertsen’s physiology professor, UK native active as distinguished emeritus professor of envi- Europe, and it became increasingly clear to him Henry Bazett, was interested in the experiments ronmental medicine. that his invention, which did not emit bubbles and asked for additional parts from the Cleveland underwater, could be used for covert military mis- anaesthesia equipment supplier. The company Adviser to NASA sions into enemy territory. offered Lambertsen a summer job at $30 a week to Lambertsen, cofounder of the Undersea Medical Professor Vann noted that Henry Fleuss of the construct an “underwater breathing apparatus for Society (now the Undersea Hyperbaric Medical United Kingdom obtained a patent in 1878 for the lifesaving.” Lambertsen accepted and improved on Society), was a medical adviser to NASA, first self contained breathing apparatus, but added his earlier version, with the face mask connected the navy, the air force, the National Oceanic that Lambertsen’s enhancements were important to a scrubber that removed carbon dioxide from and Atmospheric Administration, and other improvements that allowed divers to “conduct his exhaled breath into a flexible bag, allowing organisations. Lambertsen, whose wife, Naomi, hard work without becoming unconscious.” him to recycle his breath with added oxygen from died in 1985, leaves four sons. “He definitely was the father of the field of com- a tank. The apparatus was successful underwater Ned Staff ord bat divers in the United States,” Professor Vann but failed the chamber test. Christian Lambertsen, professor of environmental said. “And he built on his early work in a 70 year In 1941 he published a paper in JAMA describ- medicine (b 1917; q Rutgers University, New career that extended human environmental physi- ing the potential life saving uses of his invention Brunswick, NJ, 1943), died on 11 February 2011 ology from depths as great as 500 metres to the (1941;116:1387-9). A trip to Washington by from renal failure. vacuum of space.” L ambertsen and Bazett to show the invention to the Cite this as: BMJ 2011;342:d2480 926 BMJ | 23 APRIL 2011 | VOLUME 342.