history of rebreather project???

[scuba_freek2000]

hey all,
Im doing a presentation at school and need to know who created the 1st rebreather and what it was made for. THANX.:scuba:

[Bob3]

Rebreathers have been around for a long time, though they didn't show up in "widespread" military use 'till the '40s.
I'd hazard a guess that they go back into the 1800s even, at least the CO2 scrubbing part.

[BigJetDriver]

As Bob3 pointed out, they do go back into the 1800's. The exact date can be found in the History section:

Here: <www.therebreathersite.nl>

along with much other useful information! ;)

See also: <www.divingheritage.com>

[MSD2598]

hey all,
Im doing a presentation at school and need to know who created the 1st rebreather and what it was made for. THANX.:scuba:


hey i have a little info for u

jacques-yevs cousteau a french naval captain "invented" scuba diving but it was the work of both cousteau and a german man by the name of Emile Gagnan. it was invented for civilian and military underwater exploration

[MSD2598]

hey i have a little info for u

jacques-yevs cousteau a french naval captain "invented" scuba diving but it was the work of both cousteau and a german man by the name of Emile Gagnan. it was invented for civilian and military underwater exploration

[Shas]

hey all,
Im doing a presentation at school and need to know who created the 1st rebreather and what it was made for. THANX.:scuba:

Hi Scuba,

I think I may be able to help there;

The first credited rebreather was a mines rescue unit by the English botanist, Stephen Hales in 1726. He added the chemical absorbent needed to remove the CO2 - using flannel soaked in sea salt and tartar.

Then in 1878 Englishman Henry Fluess was granted a patent for a portable underwater breathing apparatus. It had a waterproofed rubber facemask, breathing bag/counterlung, cooper cylinder with oxygen and a CO2 absorbent canister of tow impregnated with caustic potash. His patent was brought by Siebe, Gorman & Co and in November 1880 his unit was used to repair a sluice door in the flooded Severn Tunnel workings.

If you need any more info please let me know.
Best Wishes,
Shas

[O2BBubbleFree]

hey i have a little info for u

jacques-yevs cousteau a french naval captain "invented" scuba diving but it was the work of both cousteau and a german man by the name of Emile Gagnan. it was invented for civilian and military underwater exploration

Um, while Cousteau did a lot for SCUBA, and is credited with invinting the on-demand regulator for open-circuit SCUBA, I don't recall he did much with rebreathers.

I believe underwater rebreathers started with Henry A. Fleuss, who invented the oxygen rebreather in 1876.

I seem to recall from research that I did on the subject that early rebreather development was mostly done in the area of mine evacuation rebreathers.

A quick google search on "history of rebreathers" turned up the following:

http://www.extendair.com/rb/rbfrm.html

I know I've seen better web pages on the subject, just don't recall where. The info should be available if you can spend some time on the 'net.

[wedivebc]

hey i have a little info for u

jacques-yevs cousteau a french naval captain "invented" scuba diving but it was the work of both cousteau and a german man by the name of Emile Gagnan. it was invented for civilian and military underwater exploration

An Austrian named Hans Haas was diving rebreather in the 1930s before Cousteau and was probably one of the first free swimming underwater explorers

cheers,

[O2BBubbleFree]

hey all,
Im doing a presentation at school and need to know who created the 1st rebreather and what it was made for. THANX.:scuba:

I dug through a bunch of stuff I printed out a while ago, and found a timeline of rebreather development. Unfortunatley the web page I printed it from is no longer valid. If you would like a copy of my printout, let me know.

It also credits Fluess with the invention of the rebreather, and calls him the first SCUBA diver, since he used his rebreather to walk along a river bed 5.5m deep.

Draeger, one of the big boys in rebreathers, has been in the business since 1907!

[babar]

us navy dive manual has a decent review of scuba diving in general, but also of rebreathers

babar

[babar]

incidentally, one of the first rebreathers was built by a guy named Chris Lambertson, he named it the FLATUS 1. It's an acronym of some sort, but funny as hell.

Babar

[gfisher4792]

Um, while Cousteau did a lot for SCUBA, and is credited with invinting the on-demand regulator for open-circuit SCUBA, I don't recall he did much with rebreathers.


I remember reading something recently that speculated that if Cousteau didn't have a bad experience with a rebreather dive, rebreathers may have become the standard kit, rather than the rare exception.

[madmole]

You should come to the UK then, its OC thats becoming the exception now, RBs should hit 15% of all dives some time this year. Cant escape the yellow perils everywhere

[cancun mark]

Then in 1878 Englishman Henry Fluess was......................

His patent was brought by Siebe, Gorman & Co and in November 1880 his unit was used to repair a sluice door in the flooded Severn Tunnel workings.


I believe that he actually completed over 1000' penetration in order to close the valve, which is pretty impressive as they hadnt invented underwater candles at that time.

The reason they had to go with rebreather technology was becaust the tank metal technology wasnt good enough to take enough gas for open circuit. they could only manage to get a 20 cubic foot copper tank to 500 psi, so to be able to make any kind of dive, they had to use O2 or Nitrox rebreathers.

[GrierHPharmD]

The Historical Diving Society has lots of info on early diving and equipment evolution:
http://hds.org/index.html

I'm reading Cousteau's The Silent World now (just re-released by National Geographic Press), and he mentions using CO2 scrubbers in the 30s, but his claim to fame (with Gagnon and Taillez) was the development of the "demand valve", or regulator, which, together with a compressed air tank, he called an "aqualung device", which later evolved to "Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", or SCUBA.

Another good resource, available at most decent book stores, is a book called Neutral Bouyancy: Adventures in a Liquid World. It has a nice discussion of the evolution of diving.

Good luck,
Grier