Technical card
Denomination: Diving device called Diving suit.
Author: Carmagnolle’s brothers (Alphonse and Theodore)
Medium: Steel, glass, rubber, canvas, lead, mastic,?
Date of conception: from 1878
Date of patent deposit: 1882
Place of manufacture: Marseille
Weight :380 Kg
Introduction
In this end of XIX th century, the diving devices are already used fluently in France. The divers have the choice between the material proposed by M. Siebe and especially the one of M. Cabirol, less costly and of simpler manufacture. However that may be, all these devices are quite to the point since 1855 and are going to invade the French harbours and the prestigious vessels of the Imperial marine of Napoléon the third gradually.
But like every invention, the helmet diving suit has its limits and here, it is the depth. Indeed, beyond 60 m, the classic diving suit is impassable… Of this idea will be born at the end of the XIX th century a few ambitious projects to repulse the limits of the submarine exploration. France won’t be in rest and these are two brothers from Marseille that will produce the most extraordinary diving suit of all times…
Patent
Patent of invention without guarantee of the government n°132761
The minister of the trade,
Seen the law of July 5, 1844;
Seen the suit verbal writen December 20, 1882, at 2 o’clock 21 minutes, to the general Secretariat of the prefecture of the department of the Seine and noting the deposit by the Sr Carmagnolles of a demand of patent of invention of fifteen years, for a new diving device called Diving suit of the brothers Carmagnolle… / /…
Descriptive memory deposited in support of the demand of a patent of invention of fifteen years formed by MESSRS Alphonse and Theodore Carmagnolle for diver’s new device says diving suit of the brothers Carmagnolle.
“The invention that is the subject of the present demand of patent is relative to important perfections that we brought to the diving devices.
Numerous tentatives have been made in the goal to allow the divers to descend and not to work under waters to big deep.those various trials produced, until this day no convenient result This difficulty appears materially insurmountable and consists to move without effort under the enormous pressure of the deep waters, to use its members usefully and especially of its hands, to back in an absolute manner out of the multiple dangers of the big funds coins sailors and finally to live and to work in these depths of a way to few meadows normal.
It is not sufficient, to solve this important problem to combine, for example, an armored device, resistant to the pressure of water and sheltering by the diver of the outside pressure, this thus donned diver won’t be submitted more directly to the weight of water, he will be able to live, to breathe, to see to the outside, but again it is necessary that he can walk, to move, to work without too many efforts and that finally this breastplate remains, in spite of the weight of water, mobile, manageable, flexible, and it is the the real problem to solve and that we absolutely solved by the disposition of our joints and the joints of our device as well as we are going to describe it… “etc…
Destination of the device
- The helmet
The other inventors and scientific of the time had seized all the importance and in part the consequences of the effects of the pressure on the organism. The goal of all their contraptions is then to protect the man of this implacable strength.
It appeared quickly that the only manner to protect the diver would be to cover it with a sort of protective armor or water would not penetrate.we finds in germ in the metallic dress of Lafayette in 1875 some ideas taken some years later by the Carmagnolle brothers. It is necessary to see in this diving suit a deep tentative” therefore well “. has how Emile Condroyer evokes the device in 1948: “The brothers Carmagnolle appeared to take their inspiration in some museum of medieval armors “, “The helmet of this iron monster presented in plan of visors twenty small portholes juxtaposed in vitreous pock. “, “Too heavy, too inconvenient to displace, this diving suit dove definitely in a room of museum “… if it is true that the volunteers would be probably rare to dive in this infernal machine today (not so sure), we had to retail the work of these two brilliant inventors further…
Survey of the device
The helmet is constituted of a metallic sphere reinforced by two median crests of reinforcement. The occipital part comes to add itself on the rear, solidly welded. The arrival of air has been arranged to this place according to all logic. One notices on this arrival a buckle of which one can imagine that it corresponded thus to an equivalent buckle on the arrival of the constituent hose a sort of security assured by a ligature or a chain.
The diver’s vision was facilitated by the multiplication of the portholes. Twenty small portholes took place on the whole face of the helmet permitting a widened vision field. They are in very thick glass, maintained in broken in conical pipes and garnished to the mastic of minium. Anyone ever dove in hard had suit will understand what hell it could be for those that tried this device provided that they survived the 380 steel Kg without succumbing to the weariness. incredible Luxury: the right lower porthole is unscruable to allow the” prisoner to quench and to breathe appropriately to few meadows in surface because whoever studied the diving suit of meadows knows that it would be necessary at least ten real minutes to unfasten the sphere. This option of multiplication of “glasses” was probably justified to the eyes of the inventors because they imagined that the diving suit would be submitted to exceptional constraints. The thickness of every portholes being of about 14 mm. While multiplying the surfaces and while reducing their size, the risks of cracks due to the pressure were reduced. It is good at this level to observe the precision and the extraordinary quality of the finishes and the construction.
The helmet is bolted to the tippet in two points behind the nape and a point on the front.
- Péllerine and front:
It is constituted by the two halves of the containing bust each an arm. These two halves are bolted one solidly to the other by two bolts on the plexus and two bolts in the back. The tightness is assured by an important joined making projected strongly.
- Articulation of the arms:
It is without any doubts the most admirable part of the device and these are yet these joints that condemned the diving suit of the brothers Carmagnole to be only a curiosity and that held it far from the depths toward which he/it was called.
The joints were of an ingenious principle: Clearly inspired by the medieval armors according to some Of the segments of spheres very finely manufactured slipped one on the other. A strip of cloth rubberized fixed the joint very close to assured the étanchéité.ajoutée to strips of pork skin (The inventors add that it is necessary to let hairs). one counts six of these joints articulated for every bras.Ces segments of spheres move around four pivots (vertical and horizontal visible on the illustration) The shells separated between them by disks can move therefore in four directions: Loud – Low, Rear – before. It is the complexity of the joints, their heaviness and their lack of tightness that made defect in spite of an impeccable realization and the hundreds of hours of machining perfectly achieved. The ball-bearings to facilitate the displacement of the pieces in the joints to kneecaps will come at the end of these problems but a lot of years later… The systems of tightness let therefore to want and one notes entries of water inside the diving suit. “They don’t forgive because air contained in the enclosed surrounding wall is to the air pressure whereas water, it is naturally to an extensively superior pressure. Then the risk of replenishment of the dress, and of drowning for the diver becomes too big “.
He/it is very likely that the displacement of the members is in the case of this extremely difficult diving suit even out of water. “even though the tightness is assured correctly, the experience proves that, under water, the joint of the arms and legs is more and more hard under the effect of the pressure. The action to seize an object, and especially to move while putting the legs in movement, becomes by force a test that only the tried athletes can face. ”
- Taille:
One recovers between the thighs the same systems of disks
- Jambes and chausses
Conclusion
All authors agreed up to here to say that the two inventors of this diving suit had been inspired by medieval armors in the rooms of a museum. He/it seems me rather; after a survey deepened of this device that the two Marseillais have in fact drawn meadows of them, in the nature the answers to their questions. As each knows it; all answers are effectively in the nature and notably under the surface of the oceans. As curious as it can appear, observe a lobster and you will find the plans of an incredible submarine machine, army, protected, articulate. It is precisely what one makes the two fréreses. Beyond the incredible complexity of the construction of this diving suit, it is especially his/her/its beauty that touches us today.
Vincent Roc Roussey
Chronology
- 1715: Device of Lethbridge
- 1771: Device of Freminet
- 1797: Machine of Klingert
- 1808: Individual bell of the English Fullerton
- 1809: Newt of Drieberg
- 1838: Machine of Taylor
- 1853: Submarine fisher of The Bateux
- 1853: Diving suit of Bigard with breastplates, cuissards, leggings, mask fenced in metal.
- 1855: Diving suit of Cabirol
- 1856: Rigid diving suit drawing articulated of LD Philips
- 1860: Aérophore of Rouquayrol and Denayrouse.
- 1875: Metallic dress of Lafayette or subsisted human appearances some.
- 1878: Conception of the rigid Diving suit articulated of the brothers Carmagnolle (According to Emile Condroyer in 1948)
- 1882: Deposit of patent of the diving suit of the brothers Carmagnolle
- 1892: Articulate diving suit of W. Carrey
- 1920: Apparition of the first efficient rigid combinations.
- After 1945: Development of the diving suit Cousteau Gagnant
History
In French diving history, Carmagnolle is a well known name. Around 1880, the brothers Alphonse and Theodore Carmagnolle were the first French manufacturers who succeeded in constructing an atmospheric suit. This suit was equipped with movable joints and was made from metal.
The Carmagnolle suit consists of two pieces. At the middle, a device was made to connect these two parts together. Also a kind of lifting construction was made with which the suit could be lifted in and out of the water. This made the Carmagnolle suit very heavy, the total weight is approximately 380 kilograms.
The most recognisable part of the suit is the headpiece. There are 20 ports, of which one is able to be unscrewed. This was made to give the diver inside some fresh air while the suit was bolted together. There was only one suit made and the story goes it has never been used.
Development DDH-Carmagnolle
My French friend and fellow helmet collector Vincent Roc Roussey asked me to make a Dutch Diving Helmet following the Carmagnolle principle. To do so, we visited the French Navy museum in Paris, where the only Carmagnolle suit was on display. Our main purpose was to see if it was a realisable project. We came to the conclusion that it would be a challenge to combine a modern shallow water helmet with the old and recognisable French Carmagnolle look
All text and pictures in this article are copyrighted © by Vincent Roc Roussey Without his fantastic help this publication would not have been possible!
Fuente: divingheritage.com