Henry Albert Fleuss (1851-1933) was a pioneering diving engineer, and Master Diver for
Siebe, Gorman & Co.Siebe Gorman & Company Ltd was a British company which developed diving equipment and breathing equipment and worked on commercial diving and marine salvage projects...
of London.
Fleuss was born in
MarlboroughMarlborough is a market town in the English county of Wiltshire on the Old Bath Road, the old main road from London to Bath. It is well known for having the widest high-street in Britain.-History:...
,
WiltshireWiltshire is a ceremonial county in the south west of England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers 3,485 km²...
in 1851.
In 1878 he was granted a patent for the first
self contained breathing apparatusA self contained breathing apparatus, or SCBA, sometimes referred to as a Compressed Air Breathing Apparatus or simply Breathing Apparatus is a device worn by rescue workers, firefighters, and others to provide breathable air in a hostile environment. When not used underwater, they are sometimes...
, which consisted of a rubber mask connected to a breathing bag, with (estimated) 50-60% O
2 supplied from a copper tank and CO
2 scrubbed by rope yarn soaked in a solution of caustic potash, the system giving a duration of about three hours.
Henry Albert Fleuss (1851-1933) was a pioneering diving engineer, and Master Diver for
Siebe, Gorman & Co.Siebe Gorman & Company Ltd was a British company which developed diving equipment and breathing equipment and worked on commercial diving and marine salvage projects...
of London.
Fleuss was born in
MarlboroughMarlborough is a market town in the English county of Wiltshire on the Old Bath Road, the old main road from London to Bath. It is well known for having the widest high-street in Britain.-History:...
,
WiltshireWiltshire is a ceremonial county in the south west of England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers 3,485 km²...
in 1851.
In 1878 he was granted a patent for the first
self contained breathing apparatusA self contained breathing apparatus, or SCBA, sometimes referred to as a Compressed Air Breathing Apparatus or simply Breathing Apparatus is a device worn by rescue workers, firefighters, and others to provide breathable air in a hostile environment. When not used underwater, they are sometimes...
, which consisted of a rubber mask connected to a breathing bag, with (estimated) 50-60% O
2 supplied from a copper tank and CO
2 scrubbed by rope yarn soaked in a solution of caustic potash, the system giving a duration of about three hours. Fleuss tested his device in 1879 by spending an hour submerged in a water tank, then one week later by diving to a depth of 5.5m in open water, upon which occasion he was slightly injured when his assistants abruptly pulled him to the surface.
Fleuss's apparatus was first used under operational conditions in November 1880 by Alexander Lambert, lead diver of the
Severn TunnelThe Severn Tunnel is a railway tunnel in the United Kingdom, linking South Gloucestershire in the west of England to Monmouthshire in south Wales under the estuary of the River Severn....
construction project. Trained by Fleuss, he was able to close a submerged
sluiceA sluice is a water channel that is controlled at its head by a gate . For example, a millrace is a sluice that channels water toward a water mill...
door in the tunnel which had defeated the best efforts of
hard hat diversA standard diving dress consists of a metallic diving helmet, an airline or hose from a surface supplied diving air pump, a canvas diving suit, diving knife and boots...
due to the danger of their air supply hoses becoming fouled on submerged debris, and the strong water currents in the workings.
The same apparatus was later used several times to rescue
mine workersA miner is a person whose work or business it is to extract ore or minerals from the earth. It is considered one of the most dangerous trades in the world. In some countries miners often do not have social guarantees and in case of destruction or mutilations they are left to the mercy of...
in flooded workings.
Some time before the First World War, the Fleuss-Davis independent breathing set for hardhat divers appeared. This device consisted of two 10 cubic foot tanks, one each for compressed air and
oxygenOxygen Oxygen Oxygen (acid, literally "sharp", from the taste of acids) and -γενής (-genēs) (producer, literally begetter) is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O...
. The gases were mixed in a manifold between the two tanks and the diver's mouthpiece. The manufacturer claimed success of this unit to depths of 66 feet.
Fleuss also invented the Fleuss vacuum pump which was a double action Guericke type pump which delivers an almost constant suction. It uses a cylinder divided in halves: as one half of the cylinder is filled with air, the other half is evacuating air to the atmosphere by one stroke of the pump. The next stroke reverses this action, producing the constant flow.
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