Leonardo da Vinci, who first studied this device, was one of the most outstanding figures in the European Renaissance (1300 ~ 1500). The underwater device he designed is a helmet that can resist water pressure. The helmet is equipped with a breathing tube that can extend out of the sea to connect with the buoy, and a glass diving mirror is put on, and many large nails are nailed to the metal helmet to avoid the invasion of animals in the sea.
Leonardo also designed webbed gloves and frog shoes, but he didn't actually test the instruments he invented, otherwise he would find many unexpected shortcomings. Divers wearing Leonardo da Vinci breathing tubes will suffocate if they dive less than 5 feet, because at that depth, the pressure on the chest prevents the lungs from expanding enough to absorb air.
100 years later, Edmund Harry invented the method of conveying compressed air in the clock. He found that if the air the diver breathes is equal to the surrounding water pressure, his chest will not be affected by the water pressure and he can breathe normally. Harry took this view as the principle of making diving bells. The diving bell is made of steel, but it has no bottom and can accommodate 1 or two divers. When the diving bell goes deep into the seabed, the weight of water will compress the air in the bell, and divers can temporarily inhale some air in the bell.
However, this kind of diving clock also has some defects: if the height of the clock is 10 foot, the depth is 627 feet, and the air in the clock is only 15 cm, divers can't move freely in it. In order to solve the space problem, Harry once again found that if air with the same pressure as water can be continuously transported from the sea surface, the internal water surface will not rise. He installed two hoses on the diving bell. Due to the pressure of water, air enters the bell jar through the pipe. Divers can get the air they need by opening the bolt cover.
Through his own personal experiments, Harry constantly changed the unsatisfactory places in the shallow water clock, such as the chairs in the clock, which hindered the diver's vision. So Harry tried to get divers to breathe the air in the independent Jason Chung, and he invented the diving suit.
When people's lungs are subjected to strong water pressure, they cannot breathe ordinary air. Therefore, the designers of early diving suits paid attention to how to protect divers under dangerous pressure. They began to study and make diving suits similar to real armor.
1829, Augustus heep invented the diving suit, which is the prototype of modern hooded diving suit. 1837 completed a fully manufactured diving suit, which is a rubber waterproof diving suit and the helmet can be taken off freely. The helmet is equipped with an air inlet and an air outlet, and the assistant supplies compressed air with a pump on the deck. Thanks to Heep's invention, divers can dive to a depth of 300 feet. The first scientist to explore the seabed with Heep's device was the French zoologist Henry Mirren Edward. 1844, he sneaked into the coast of Sicily and collected biological specimens inhabiting the Mediterranean. Henry has done this job many times. Although the invention of diving suit greatly facilitated scientists' research on the ocean, few scientists imitated him in diving exploration because of various unsatisfactory aspects of early diving suit.
In A.D. 1865, French mining technician Bunova Ruklo and a naval petty officer Ochester Dunnas designed a device that allowed divers to move freely. They installed a metal jar filled with compressed air on the diver's back, and two regulating valves were installed on it, one for sending out air and the other for discharging the air exhaled by the diver.
The invention was almost perfect, but because it was impossible to make a metal tank that could withstand deep-sea water pressure at that time, Ruklow and Dunners had to still use the original device to transport air through a long pipe. Diving completely out of the pipeline was not successfully developed until 1943.
While studying diving suits, submarines suitable for deep-sea operations are also under development. Some people think that Leonardo da Vinci also has a blueprint for developing warships in the sea, but he strictly abides by the secret of this plan. He once recorded: "Because there are too many evils in people's hearts, if people know the secret of sailing in the sea, they will not hesitate to sow the seeds of killing in the deep sea with ships sailing in the sea."
History has ruthlessly verified his fears. 1776, the submarine invented by David Bushnier was used in the American War of Independence. This Datoru, which looks like a turtle, is sailed by a person who turns a crank with his hand to make two propellers (one for moving the boat back and forth and the other for moving it up and down). Buxiunier designed this kind of ship, which enabled the pilot to load gunpowder on the enemy's hull. Although Datoru used explosive devices to attack British ships in new york Port, it failed.
Later, American technician Robert Fortun improved Datoru's design. In 1800, he built two submarines-No. Tiras and Yingde. Fortun believed that submarines would help to end naval warfare or piracy, but neither of his submarines was used in war. Before 1930, no one could go to the bottom of the sea more than 600 feet, but in this year, mankind finally broke through this deep sea no man's land. This is because of the development of new ships and the renewal of these ships, which makes ornithologist William Bibby turn to the study of marine biology. Bibby has been exploring the depths of the ocean for a long time. His purpose is to explore the marine life living in it. In order to achieve this goal, he dived into the sea hundreds of times. Although he wears a safe hooded diving suit, he is still limited by depth. Use a steel rope to dive to the bottom of the sea below 63 feet in the waters of Haiti Island. Through the glass goggles on his helmet, he saw many precious and colorful fish and marine life swimming freely in his eyes.
Bibby wrote in the book "Half a mile under the sea": "When I looked down, I saw unknown creatures like Mars and Venus, which made me feel that my wish to roam in the sea was coming true."
Bibby tried to dive deeper, but the submersible at that time hindered his action. To overcome this obstacle, it is necessary to bear an average pressure of 40 kg 1 cm2 and be able to ride on the wide wall of 1 person.
In order to complete this idea, Bibby decided to invite steel ball technician Judith Barton and designer John H J Budd who had done deep-sea exploration to help. With the joint efforts of three people, the equipment was re-made, and Bibby named the new equipment "Deep Sea Diving Ball".
"Deep-sea diving ball" has a diameter of 1.45 m and a wall thickness of 3 cm. It can withstand the pressure of more than 105.5 kg per square centimeter-equivalent to the pressure at a depth of 3400 below sea level, and it is quite strong. The ship weighs 2450 kilograms; It is different from a military submarine. The diving ball is equipped with a circular window with a thickness of 76 cm, which is made of glass made by dissolving in time. It is the hardest transparent body known to man. It can reflect light of any wavelength, and the diameter of each window is 20.3 cm. The deep-sea diving ball is equipped with an aerobic pump, which can automatically supply oxygen. The moisture emitted by the crew will be absorbed by the calcium chloride in the dish, and the alkaline lime (a mixture of calcium oxide and sodium hydroxide) in the dish can absorb the carbon dioxide that permeates the room.
In addition, there is a pipeline between the deep-sea diving ball and the mother ship at sea. The cable in the pipe can supply the power needed to start the electric machinery and searchlight, and at the same time, in order to make a detailed record when Bibby enters the deep sea, a telephone line is installed. Finally, the deep-sea diving ball was hoisted into the sea by a steel cable with a diameter of 2.2 cm and a length of 10.6 km.
How deep can the diving ball dive? On June 6, 1930 answered this question. On the same day, the deep-sea diving ball was loaded on the deck of the big ship "Madam" and transported to the warm sea of Bermuda. The "Lady" itself was towed to the ocean by the tugboat "Fulatis". Prior to this, in order to adapt to this deep-sea trip, the deep-sea diving ball conducted many diving tests on the same route, but there were no staff in the ball. These preparations are for an unprecedented deep-sea adventure.
In the morning, Bibi and Barton enter the circular entrance of the deep-sea diving ball with a diameter of 35.6 cm. The crew on the deck locked the cover of 180 kg with huge screws and nuts, and the diving ball was completely sealed.
No one can predict what kind of danger you will encounter when diving. They are like crazy people imprisoned in steel containers, unable to resist the violent shaking of deep-sea diving balls. The diving ball rocked up and down with the mother ship under the impact of the sea waves, and soared under the tension of the cable. If the cable tension exceeds the limit, the deep-sea diving ball will roll into the seabed like a stone.
When Bibby looked at the underwater world, he forgot his fear. Bibby wrote in the book: "At a depth of 50 feet, I saw that my surroundings were surrounded by hazy turquoise. I can't believe this is the limit of my diving with a diving helmet. "
Bibby went on to write: "Every time you dive a few more feet, you will encounter a surprising new phenomenon-life is not as rich and active as you think, but the number of all living things is incredible. At the depth of 65,438+0,000 feet, I clearly saw some light green lights and chiseled shrimps ... Occasionally, Meranotostoma Adit arowana gave off dazzling light, and at the same time, we also saw a fish named Shapmolina giving off pearl-like light spots, and the color of Peipuda (a small nail pattern) reminded us of the radiation of the sun ... "
"At the depth of 1.680 feet, we saw a creature with a body length of 1.4 cm rushing to the window, flying out quickly and exploding. The flash is very bright on my face, in and under the window. In those flashes, I saw a red prawn and a broken lamp. "
"At 1 1 in the morning, we stopped at a depth of 3,000 feet, which will be the last point of this dive, because there are almost no cables connecting the mother ship ... the surrounding water is darker. In contrast, any starry night at sea is just' thin and dark'. I don't think I'll be relaxed anymore.
The rope seems to be loose, and the ball has dropped a bit. At this time, I received a phone call from the sea, saying that there was a shear wave on the sea just now. Because the weight of the deep-sea diving ball and rope was tightly wound on the winch, Captain Hubersta ordered the rope to relax and the rope dropped 14.4 cm. There are only 12 turns of cable left on the hoist shaft, and now we are suspended at a depth of 3028 feet, then we realize that we are so far away from the sea. "
Bibby and Barton finally set a record for the deepest diving of human beings, and they returned to the sea with the cheers of people.