Human Submarine

From Berlin came a report of sucfessful tests of a metal noncollapsible diving suit. The suit has a metal body built solidly like the conning tower of a submarine, and flexible aluminum arms and legs. The air pressure within is kept normal,* and the air purified and replenished chemically.

This type of suit is not new (TIME, Jan. 26). The interest lies in the reported success of the present suit. Its inventor is said to have spent 50 minutes in it at 460 feet and 20 minutes at 525 feet./-The tests were made at Walchen Lake, in the Bavarian Alps.

The suit has arrangements so that the diver can cast off his ropes and telephone cable and work freely, with ballast tanks which may be emptied by compressed air so as to enable him to rise to the surface and maneuver. Because the diver, thus converted into a sort of one-man submarine, is not subjected to high air pressure, he can rise to the surface rapidly without ill effects.

* The ordinary diving suit, with a body of fabric, inflated by air, subjects the wearer to air pressure as great as the water pressure without. /-The depth attainable in ordinary suits is about 180 feet