DIVING by Maximilian ~Ugene Nohl ~uwnitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of BACHELOR OF SCI}JlCE From the ~~SSACHUSETTS INSTITUfE OF TECHNOLOGY 1935 -2- f.-"', i-; r; J ~ ) TABLE OF COl11'~NTS SUBJECT PAGE TITLE PAGE 1 'rULE OF CONTENTS 2 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIOnS AND DRAWINGS 5 L:bTTER OF TRANSMITTAL 6 INrRODUCTION: SCOPE OF THESIS 7 DIVING SHELL 7 DR. BEEBE t S "BA.THYSPHERE" 9 ARMORED DIVING DRESS 10 OBSERVATIONAL SHELLS 10 ACCESS TUBE 10 SUBMARIl-l'E :BOAT 10 STANDARD DIVING APPARATUS 10 OPENHEL1iET 11 SOURCES OF Ilfit'ORMATION 11 A NEW TYPB OF ShLF-GOHTAINED DIVING SUIT 12 PAT~-nrS 15 SETH PARKbR EXPBDITION 15 DATA ON SUN'"lCEUSHIPS 16 SUBl~IllliS 16 SALVAGING 16 LOCATION OF VffiECKS 16 COlffIlnlATIONOFWORK 17 PART A: APPARATUS FROTEC/rING THE DIVER FROM WATER PRESSURE 19 1. A DEEP WATER DIVInG SHELL 19 GENERAL DESCRIPrION 19 USE OF SHELL 22 DErAILED DATA AIID DESIGN 25 WEIGHT 25 DI SPLACE11BM 26 DEPl'H 27 STABILITY 28 WINDOW 30 PAl Ifll I1IG 30 SPEED AIm POWER 32 ELECTRICAL SYS~r 35 JJU~ 38 EJ.lliRGENCY RELEASE 39 AIR COIIDITIOmUG APPARATIJS 40 LAUNCHING RAFr 45 2. DR. BMBE'S ":BATHYSPHERE" 47 3. A COMPARISON llli'TWEEN THE "EATh"'YSPHERE AND 1Jff SHELL 50 -3- TAl3LE OF CQBT]jlU'S SUBJECT PAGE 4. ARMORED DIVING DRESS 52 LIMITATIONS OF ARMORED SUIT 55 PATE1fl1S ON AHMORED SUITS 57 5. SUSP£1IDED OBSERVATIOUAL SHELLS 60 6. ACCESS TUBE 62 7. LAKE t S SUBMARINE "THE EXPLORER" 64 8. TEE 1f~DERN FI GHTING SUBl~IIiE BOAT 66 PART 13: WATER PRESSURE DIVING 69 1. OPEN EEU~~ DIVING 69 2. HALF DRESS 72 3. RUBB:Im SurT DIVING 74 DESCRIPTION OF APPARATUS 74 THE PIIYSICS AND PHYSIOLOGY OF RUBJ3ER SUIT DIVING' 76 EFFECTS OF NITROGBN 79 EFFECTS OF OXYGBlI 82 EFFECTS OF CARBON DIOXIDE 85 DI SADV A11TAGES 88 4. OTIlliR WATER PRESSURE APPARATUS 93 ROUQUAYROL ,DEJiAYRONIZE APPARATUS 93 DIVING BELL 94 CAISSOH WORK 94 TUN1il'EL WORK 94 MOMSON LUnG 94 S IEJ3E-OOffirAN SELF C01~AIIW DRESS 95 OXYLPl'HE 97 5. THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OP HELIUM 98 B1JllEAU OF 11I1ms Ilm'STI GATI ON 99 PATENTS ON THE USE OF A HELIUM OXYGEN lITXTURE 101 6. PAfTh'NTS 102 7. A l~W TYPE OF SELF COl~l'AINKD DRESS 108 CONSTRUCTION 108 OPERATION 116 CLAIl,lIS TO ADVA.1I1TAGES 121 USInG COMPRESSED AIR, HOSE, AIID ABSORPTION CAmHSTER 126 EXPE-B.II>jb'1'fllA~l.lI ON WITH SELF-C01fl'AI1W DRESS 129 PA-BT C: !l1ISCELLA!lliOUS 132 1. UTIDERWATER VISIBILITY 132 2. ARRANGEIIEI1T OJ? BOAT FOR LIVII1IG .135 3. B1BLIOGRAPHY 138 -4- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND DRAWINGS SUBJECT BEFORE PAGE COI\!TROL STICK 20 BALLAST PLATE 21 ARM HA.:NDLE 21 rr'HE SHELL WITH 1:IER DIVInG :MOTOR 22 DIVING ON trEE "SETH PARKER" 25 CROSS SECTION OF SllliLL 27 SIDE VIE~V OF DIVIHG SHELL 29 WIRING DIAGRA.:M 35 BALL AND SOCI<E'T ARM JOI:rrr 38 CROSS SECtl'IOH PLUG SCREEN FOR EXPOSURE OF CHLMICALS 43 RAFI' AND SHELL 45 T:H::B " BATHYSPHERE" EMERGInG FROM THE WAT1.""R THE "BA.THYSPIfr1ll.~tt READY FOR A DIVE RESULT OF A LEAK AT 2000 EU'T TEE FIRST NEUEELDT AIID KTJH1Ulli ARlJIORED SUIIJ' 53 THE LATEST I:;:ODEL OB' THE A..'q1;IORED SUIT 54 AU OBSERVATION SllliLL 61 rrHE LATEST MOD:r~LOF THE I&UB"ELDT AI-ill KUHNKE AR1IO!lli'D SUIT 61 DIVING IN LAIili MICHIGAn 71 THE SHELL BEFORE A DI~.B ON 'l'RE uSErrE PARKER" 71 -5- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIons A1i'D DRAWINGS SUBJECT PAGE OPEn HELJ.!l1'T 71 AUTHOR'S DIVING SUIT 75 DICROMPRESSION TABLES 80 WINTER DIVING 86 FROl~ A~ID SIDE VIENS OF SELF-C01~AINlD SUIT 109 EXPERIMc ..17rAL SELF-COJ'VrAINED SUIT 130 -5- 528 Beacon St., Boston, MASS., January 22, 1934 Prof. James Robertson Jack, Dept. of Naval Architecture and lJerine Engineering. 1~ssachusetts Institute of Technology Dear Prof. Jack: I hereby submit row thesis as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science. Sincerely yours, 1nximilian Eugene Nohl -7- INTRODUCTION SCOPE OF THESIS I have always been interested in the sea and have always been intrigued by its depths and by apparatus that would enable a man to descend into them. However, until the start of the work for this thesis, I had never seen a diving suit or become familiar with its principles. As the result of an inspiration as to the possibilities of salvage work given to me in the latter part of my Junior year, the Spring of 1933, I deliberately decided to choose diving as a subject for row thesis. In the year and a half that has elapsed since the day of that decision to the time of this writing, I have done little else but follow up this inspiration. As an introduction to this thesis, I will describe briefly some of the work that I have done. Un- ~~ fort1mately, a large part of this material can~ be included in these pages. I have divided the work of this thesis into two parts, the first which pertains to diving apparatus which protects the diver from water pressure, and the second part of which pertains to apparatus which submits the diver to water pressure. In each case, all of the work that he,s been done to date with that respective type of apparatus is considered and the apparatus that I have designed or built is described, and the necessary companions made. DIVING SHELL: I completed the design of this shell in the Spring of 1933. As constrllctiona1 problems arose I sought the teclU1ical -8- men, and engineers at the companies where materials were purchased, wherever I felt that I needed it. The design was carefully gone over by my father, for his approval, by my uncle for his advice as to the practical aspects of the shell, and by a prominent engineer as to the technical aspects of the design. Pending the approval of these three men, the construction of the shell was started in June 1933. The entire summer was spent working on her, her equipment, and launching raft. Unfortunately, it was necessary to build her on the beach at my summer home on Lake ~tlchiean, which is not protected from the furies of the lake storms. Great difficulties were encountered toward the end of the summer in diving the shell from a raft as small as she was in the high seas that are characteristic of the late summer. The shell only had opportunities for ~vo very shallow dives, before an unfortunate accident destroyed the possibility of further diving that summer. During a violent storm, with the shell on the raft and the latter moored in the open lake, the lashings holding her fast to the raft parted. This allowed her to swing like a pendulum on the chain fall from the beams of the super- structure, and as the raft pitched violently to the enormous waves, the swinging of the shell tore away these timbers and set her free in the water. Empty so that she could float, she was washed up on the beach, without suffering any damages to herself but bre~king the window to powder on the rocks and losing one externally housed diving motor that had been on at the time. She was stored for the -9- winter after this, because the summer wns too far gone to continue any amount of worlt. However she was unexpectedly brought out from her storage in the middle of winter to join the Seth Parker Expedition. The damages of the late summer's storm had not been repaired and because of the shortness of time, it was decided to take her on the ex- pedition as she was and use her without the motors as a suspended shell with negative buoyancy, which had been one of her proposed methods of use. She vms loaded on a trailer and carried 3,600 miles, joining the "Seth Parker" at Jacksonville, Florida. Work was continued on her, repairing her damages and adding new equipment over the months that followed, and she was used for diving extremely successfully in the waters of the West Indies. She proved herself excellent for observational work and functioned perfectly. Because of the unsatisfactory nature of the expedition, I left after I was completely satisfied as to the performance of the shell. She was left on board because it would have been almost impossible for me to take her back to the States when I left with the other diving equipment that I had, and is there at this time. The "Seth Parker" is expected back very soon, and as soon as possible the shell will be obtained and transferred to row own boat for completion of her equipment, further diving, and experimentation. DR. Bil]BE'S "BA.THYSPHERE": Because of a great ma.ny similarities between the "Bathysphere" and II\V shell, I am including a discussion of it in these pages. The information obtained was obtained from my inspection of the "Bat.h3spherett, an interview with Dr. Beebe, -10- and data given to me by him. A comparison of the 2 shells is made. ~roRED DIVING DRESS: The information presented is largely based on data obtained from the ~atent office, data from their sole manufacturer in Germany, and reports on their operations. This type of dress can hardly be called satisfactory and its usage in American waters has been almost negligble. OBSARVA~I01~ SHELLS: I have obtained first hand experience in this type of apparatus, using my shell as a suspended device.