Closed diving dress (Siebe)
Escafandra de casco cerrado (Siebe)
- Date
- 1837 · confidence high
- Place
- London, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Augustus Siebe
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A watertight diving suit with a copper helmet bolted to a corselet and air pumped from the surface. It is the first reliable professional diving kit and was used to salvage HMS Royal George.
The Deane brothers designed an open helmet in 1828-1830 and Siebe closed it and joined it to the suit; credit is shared.
What it led to
- commercial, military and salvage diving
- underwater works in ports and bridges
- decompression research (Haldane)