Exploding Goats and Diving Physiology

[Akimbo]

There have been a lot of posts on Scubaboard referring to exploding goats but I thought it might be interesting for those skeptics among us to see part of the important role they played:

Page 15 of Sir Robert Davis' book Deep Diving and Submarine Operations 7th edition​

Lavender is ready to dive​

Sadly, some goats did explode during animal experiments. As I understand it, most were lost due to failures in the early and the primitive chambers they were being tested in. Experiments on omitted decompression, often called explosive decompression, were mostly limited to smaller and less expensive animals like rodents.

 

[Compressor]

Many of the experiments were also done on sheep. And also pregnant sheep as scientist were trying to answer the question of effect of diving and decompression illness on pregnant humans.

An example.

 

[The Chairman]

Reading this was a blast!

 

[gypsyjim]

Having owned several ( another word for too many) goats, being able to blow goats up is almost as good a reason to own a goat as I can think of.

That, and they do make a god Bonairian stew.