Homemade (dangerous!) helmets of yore

[BLT]

Following a link from the Boing-boing gadgets page, I found an interesting link to some old magazine articles on the modernmechanix webpage with pictures of people who have made their own dive helmets including the instructions to make them!
It is sometimes amazing to me that humans as a species have survived after some of the stunts we pull!

modern mechanix web link: blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/03/04/how-to-drown-yourself-diy-style/#more-3994

Boing Boing gadgets page: gadgets.boingboing.net/

[SeaRat]

BLT,

Thanks for the post. I've just put this comment into that site:

This helmet is very dangerous on two points:

1. It depends upon the bellows for air pressure to keep water out of the helmet.

2. There is no non-return valve in the helmet to keep air in it of the supply is lost.

This latter point is especially bad if the diver is deep (greater than 5 feet), and there is a seal made at the shoulders. Loss of air would then allow the water pressure to try to force the diver's body into the helmet, and through the small holes in the top (assuming that the hose stayed intact). This led to a number of diver deaths in the early days of diving, and is very, very dangerous. This helmet should never be dived!!!

John C. Ratliff

John

[swimjim]

Pretty cool link. John is quite correct about return valves of course. Getting sucked up a hose in the event of an air supply problem can ruin your entire day!

Jim