On April 22 of the year 1952, U.S. Patent No.: 2,593,988 issued to Jacques Yves Cousteau for a "Diving Apparatus". Although best known as an underwater explorer, conservationist and filmmaker, Cousteau was also a talented and prolific inventor, who held a large number of patents. Most, if not all, of these patents were for water-related inventions, and many of them were shared with Cousteau's long-time friend and colleague, Émile Gagnan. The most important of the Cousteau-Gagnan patents was U.S. Patent No.: 2,485,039 for the "Aqua-Lung" breathing apparatus, which Cousteau and Gagnon developed in 1943. The Aqua-Lung apparatus was the first open-circuit, self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA) to be widely-used and commercially succesful.
While the SCUBA apparatus developed earlier by Cousteau and Gagnon had general application and really kicked off the sport of recreational diving, the diving apparatus of the '988 patent was directed toward commercial divers, who often had to work under cold conditions. At the time, commercial divers were still using the old-fashioned diving suits with hard copper helmets connected by air pipes to air supplies on the surface. While cumbersome, these hard helmet diving suits prevented the ingress of water and kept the divers dry (i.e., were dry suits), which allowed the divers to wear insulating clothing underneath, such as long underwear.
Besides being cumbersome, the hard helmet diving suits were dangerous. The air supply to the suit had to be closely controlled to prevent "ballooning" or "squeezing". With ballooning, too much air was admitted into the suit, which would blow the suit up like a balloon, causing the diver to shoot to the surface, risking decompression sickness, i.e., "the bends". With squeezing, not enough air was supplied to the helmet, which would subject the the diver to an excessive pressure differential, often causing organ damage. In extreme cases, such as a failure of the air pipe, the diver would experience a gruesome death. In his book Silent World, Cousteau provided the following graphic description: "[b]y the suction of the air pipe his flesh is stripped away in rags which stream up the pipe, leaving a skeleton in a rubber shroud to be raised to the tender".
The diving apparatus of the '988 patent included a dry suit that had a flexible hood instead of a hard helmet. The suit was comprised of two parts: an upper part that included the hood, as well as sleeves and a jacket, and a lower part that included trousers. The upper and lower parts were secured together in a water-tight manner. The suit was provided with a plurality of one-way valves, each of which was operable to open when the pressure within the suit became higher than the outside water at the level of the valve. The valves were located on the top of the hood, at the ends of the sleeves, at the bottom of the trouser legs and in the middle of the body on the abdomen and back. In this manner, excess air was allowed to escape the suit from its highest valve, regardless of the position of the diver.
The diving apparatus of the '988 patent included a dry suit that had a flexible hood instead of a hard helmet. The suit was comprised of two parts: an upper part that included the hood, as well as sleeves and a jacket, and a lower part that included trousers. The upper and lower parts were secured together in a water-tight manner. The suit was provided with a plurality of one-way valves, each of which was operable to open when the pressure within the suit became higher than the outside water at the level of the valve. The valves were located on the top of the hood, at the ends of the sleeves, at the bottom of the trouser legs and in the middle of the body on the abdomen and back. In this manner, excess air was allowed to escape the suit from its highest valve, regardless of the position of the diver.
A breathing apparatus was provided for supplying a diver with air from a cylinder of compressed air carried by the diver or from an air line connected to a surface pump. The breathing apparatus included the Aqua-Lung pressure regulator of the earlier '039 patent connected between the supply of air and a mouthpiece held in the diver's mouth. The pressure regulator was operable to supply air at the same pressure as the outside water. The mouthpiece isolated the breathing apparatus from the atmosphere in the suit. A mask with a rubber gasket also isolated the nose and eyes of the diver from the interior of the suit.
Air was supplied to the suit through a second pressure regulator. If a compressed air cylinder was used as the air source for the breathing apparatus, the cylinder was also used as the air source for the suit. If a surface pump was used as the air source for the breathing apparatus, the air source for the suit could either be a small compressed gas cylinder carried by the diver or the surface pump. In the latter case, air from the surface was supplied through the breathing apparatus to the suit.
The diving apparatus of the '988 patent became known as a constant volume dive suit and was manufactured and sold by La Spirotechnique, which was a division of Air Liquide. The constant volume dive suit was much cheaper than the old hard helmet diving apparatus and, more importanly, was much safer. With its one-way valves and pressure regulators, the constant volume dive suit of the '988 patent essentially eliminated the possibility of ballooning or squeezing.
Air was supplied to the suit through a second pressure regulator. If a compressed air cylinder was used as the air source for the breathing apparatus, the cylinder was also used as the air source for the suit. If a surface pump was used as the air source for the breathing apparatus, the air source for the suit could either be a small compressed gas cylinder carried by the diver or the surface pump. In the latter case, air from the surface was supplied through the breathing apparatus to the suit.
The diving apparatus of the '988 patent became known as a constant volume dive suit and was manufactured and sold by La Spirotechnique, which was a division of Air Liquide. The constant volume dive suit was much cheaper than the old hard helmet diving apparatus and, more importanly, was much safer. With its one-way valves and pressure regulators, the constant volume dive suit of the '988 patent essentially eliminated the possibility of ballooning or squeezing.