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Diving Operations: Fleuss

We now come to the most hopeful invention of all, that of Mr. Fleuss, an officer of the Mercantile Marine. As Mr. Fleuss's method embraces questions of a physiological character, it may be as well, before describing its details, to briefly glance at the phenomena concerned in the function of breathing. We all know that unless a man is regularly supplied with fresh air that he will soon cease to live; and we have already seen, in the chapter on chemistry, that the air he breathes consists of four-fifths of nitrogen and one-fifth of oxygen. In the process of breathing, a portion, but not all of the latter, is absorbed by the body, a large portion being returned from the lungs unaltered, together with carbonic acid, a poisonous gas. Supposing that anybody donned a diving dress without making arrangements for a supply of air, and endeavoured to live in it, he would find that the contained air would gradually become irrespirable through the absorption of the oxygen and the contamination of the carbonic acid. The task before Mr. Fleuss was therefore of a double nature, the renewal of the oxygen and the elimination of the carbonic acid.

By the old method the air is constantly renewed by the pipe proceeding from the helmet, the products of breathing being forced out by the pressure of the air-pump. But Mr. Fleuss uses neither pipe nor air-pump. His apparatus is contained within the dress, and he can remain under water for many hours without any communication with the surface. The diagram on preceding page will help to explain how he accomplishes this apparent impossibility. Let us first consider the construction of the headpiece or helmet. Outwardly it has the appearance of an ordinary diving-helmet, with the important exception that it has no air-pipe attached to it. Within, it is divided into two distinct compartments, one being contained inside the other. The inner space, A, is occupied by the diver's head, and the outer space, B, is for the storage of compressed oxygen gas. This gas can be turned into the inner helmet as required, by turning the tap, C, which is so placed that it is within easy reach of the diver's hand.

The nitrogen contained about the dress and helmet when the diver first descends is sufficient to last for an indefinite time. It passes through the lungs again and again unaltered, and merely requires the addition of oxygen by the means just detailed, to render it fit for breathing purposes. Let us now see how Mr. Fleuss accomplishes the other portion of his task, the elimination of the poisonous carbonic acid given off with the exhaled air. For this we must refer to the lower portion of the diagram which represents the metallic casing by which the diver's body is protected from the pressure of the water. Within this casing are two receptacles, D and E. These each contain a mass of spongy india rubber saturated with caustic soda. Now caustic soda has the property of combining with carbonic acid, turning it into harmless carbonate of soda. The air which Mr. Fleuss exhales from his lungs is carried through both the cases D and E, and finally emerges washed and free from the poison and ready once more to be inhaled after it has been revivified with its due proportion of oxygen from the store compressed in the outer helmet. Enough oxygen can be compressed in the helmet to last a diver for about five hours, and the caustic soda does not require renewing until it has been in constant use for nearly a week. The cost of both preparations is extremely small, and both can easily be obtained. Oxygen gas is now purchasable for many purposes in iron cylinders. Such a cylinder connected by a pipe with the helmet will charge it in about two minutes.

Such is the new plan for diving purposes. It has many very great advantages, not the least of which is its economy. The entire apparatus costs less than half that of the older system, and only one attendant is required instead of three; the duty of this one being merely to hold the signal line. The description of this marvellous invention may be well concluded by some remarks made by Dr. Richardson, who lately brought the subject under the notice of the Society of Arts :-- "The conclusion that we may arrive at is that we have an apparatus now at our command in which, under certain conditions, a man can live for a long time under water, and be capable of carrying out active movement with perfect freedom, in which also a person can enter into an irrespirable gas. The apparatus may be used for diving, but how far it will extend for that use exclusively has to be proved. There is a great difference, I understand, amongst divers as to the distance below water at which Mr. Fleuss can work with his apparatus. He himself has been twenty-five feet under water with it, and has felt no embarrassment. He has walked 400 yards under water, and felt no embarrassment; but whether he can go to the great depths which some divers have gone with the ordinary dress is a matter which remains yet for inquiry. It may interest you to know to what depths divers can go. Mr. Siebe has related that one diver, named Hooper, descended, near Cape Horn, actually to the depth of 200 feet, and remained working for forty-two minutes; the extremest depth to which a man has descended. That man, it is said, descended seven times, and remained under water forty-two minutes each time. The statement has not been confirmed by after experiments, perhaps because no one has had occasion to go to such a depth, but the very able writer of the article on diving in the Encyclopaedia Britannica shows most distinctly that in some experiments made in Scottish waters a depth of eighty-six feet was obtained by the divers; so that we may be quite sure, from the observations then made, that eighty-six feet is an attainable depth. On theoretical grounds, Mr. Fleuss ought to do the same, but he has yet to win his spurs, to show that he can descend to that depth, and perform work the same as divers can who are supplied with air through a tube from above. "Whether the invention is to be useful in the way of a diving apparatus or not, certain it is, it may be very useful for many other purposes. It may be extremely useful, I think, for entering into houses that are on fire, and my suggestion will be that a dress be made of very light material for this purpose, and of a fire-proof material. That is to say, perhaps a felt dress, saturated in nephate of ammonia, and made in such a way that the limbs can move easily in it. Then I see no reason why a man should not enter into a burning house and fetch out persons who are being burnt or subjected to danger, without any danger at all, in so far as the bad air is concerned. Of course he could not resist great heat, nor the danger from falling materials, but he would resist the suffocating smoke and air. I believe that this will be one of the most admirable contrivances, and I should expect that the day will come when every fire-engine-room in London will be supplied with one of them. Again, I think the apparatus may be used with great effect in mines. I have already shown, by an experiment with Mr. Fleuss, in the most crucial form, that he can live in the most active narcotic atmosphere. That he could be let down into a mine at any time after an explosion, and traverse wherever he could see, and ascertain what persons were there, and render assistance, I have not the slightest doubt. He could do that to any extent, if he could carry a light. There an improvement wants to be brought forward again, a light that will illuminate all round, and yet, at the same time, not set fire to explosive gas. Once more, he could enter wells and places where carbonic acid is being given off freely. The dogs in the Grotto del Cane die rapidly when they are put on the floor; Mr. Fleuss could lie down in the place all day, if he could feed himself, quite easily."