Comment

Comment by Chris White on October 17, 2009 at 9:19am

That is an amazing picture.

Comment by Dive Diva on October 4, 2009 at 1:41pm

In 1922, Joseph Salim Peress patented the first spherical type joint, which used a fluid to transfer the pressure. He built his first suit in 1925, which unfortunately did not work. Peress later redesigned the joints on an annular cylinder and piston resting on a cushion of fluid, which came to be known as Type 1.

In 1932 he built a second ADS, which was then referred to as the Tritonia, and is now commonly called "Jim I." It was successfully used on the wreck of the Lusitania at a depth of 312 feet (95m). In 1937 the Tritonia successfully completed trials with the British Royal Navy, but the Navy then concluded that there was no current requirement for deep sea diving and it was more interested in developing ambient pressure diving systems.

The old Tritonia was located in a factory in Glasgow and shipped under the "utmost" secrecy. (The crate apparently arrived with the words "Lusitania Diving Suit" in large block letters along the side - so much for trade secrets). The suit was still divable and required only minor refurbishing before Peress, in his late 60s, demonstrated the suit in a tank in Hampshire.

Peress's expertise was harnessed later in the century to help develop the JIM Suit, named after Peress's chief diver Jim Jarrett. The second suit Peress built is on display at the British Science Museum in London. Peress died June 4, 1978.