Submarine Appliances And Their Uses
Deep Sea Diving, &c., &c.

Kleingert’s Apparatus. Fig. No. 86 The next contrivance worthy of mention, and most nearly resembling the modern diving dress, was an apparatus invented by Kleingert, of Breslau, in 1798. This consisted of an egg-ended metallic cylinder, enveloping the head and the body to the hips. The diver was encased first of all in a leather jacket having tight-fitting arms, and in leather drawers with tight-fitting" leg's. To these the cylin- der was fastened in such a way as to render the whole equipment air-tight. The air supply was drawn through a pipe which was connected with the mouth of the diver by an ivory mouthpiece, the sur- face encl being held above water after the manner mentioned in Vegetius, viz., by means of a floating bladder attached to it. The foul air escaped through another pipe held in the same way above the surface of the water, inhalation being performed by the mouth and exhalation by the nose, the act of inhala- tion causing the chest to expand and so to expel the vitiated air through the escape pipe. The diver was weighted when going under water, and when he wished to ascend he released one of his weights, and attached it to a rope which he carried, and it was afterwards hauled up. But as this apparatus did not permit of descend- ing into deep water, Kleingert subsequently con- structed a diving machine in which the diver was provided with an air reservoir, and therefore could continue his stay under water as long as the neces- sary supply of air for respiration sufficed, which he inhaled under a pressure corresponding to the depth reached by him. As Fig- 87 sfton'S, the compression of the air corresponding to the existing water pressure is ef- fected by the piston being forced in by the water pressure during the lowering of the apparatus, and the air thus compressed is supplied to the diver, from, the reservoir, through a pipe. /Is will be seen, the diver is surrounded by compressed air everywhere except on his arms and legs; consequently, the whole of his body is subjected everywhere to the same pressure. The head and trunk of the diver are surrounded by cylindrical metallic casings, shutting off the air surrounding his body hermetically against the surrounding water, and from which the arms and legs protrude, through watertight-joint pieces of leather attached to the casing. The capacity of the air reservoir was about 40 cubic feet. A foot-board was fixed to the reservoir on which the diver was stationed. 162