LIKE A FISH – REVOLUTIONARY UNDERWATER BREATHING SYSTEM

[TheMadMonk]

An Israeli Inventor has developed a breathing apparatus that will allow breathing underwater without the assistance of compressed air tanks. This new invention will use the relatively small amounts of air that already exist in water to supply oxygen to both scuba divers and submarines. The invention has already captured the interest of most major diving manufacturers as well as the Israeli Navy.

http://www.isracast.com/tech_news/310505_tech.htm

[Master Mahon]

1. I'm waiting for 'Beam Me Up Scotty'! n/t

[Random_Australian]

10. She's away right now, there is a thread about it in Religion/ Theology.

[Felinity]

2. Seen it

I watched a documentary about the underground rivers/caves under the island of Cosamel (could be misspelled) in the Yucatan. They commented that the equipment is new; the divers who routinely explored the caves (closed to the public) were using them for the first time.

Looked like a great idea, and they were able to take much longer dives.

The caves are awesome.

[TheMadMonk]

7. I believe you're thinking of rebreather gear.

If we're on the same wavelength, the device you're talking of run's the diver's exhaled air through a CO2 scrubber, oxygen is added from a tank and the mix is rebreathed by the diver. This system still requires tanks for the suplemental oxygen, albeit much smaller ones.

The Israeli device extracts disolved air directly from the surrounding water.

[MuseRider]

3. Awesome!

Those tanks are cumbersome out of the water and can be in the water if you put them on too high.

So this new system will not add weight or make you light when they empty (guess there is nothing to empty)? That would be very helpful, especially if you have to spend some time decompressing at depth, I always have a terrible time keeping down when my tank is not full. Still it seems you will be limited to an hour underwater and that is a drag, especially on shallow dives. Cool, this will be fun to try when available.

Edit....I missed the bottom part of the article so some of what I just said may not be the case, going back to read more

[benburch]

4. I had a similar idea I wrote about on usenet a number of years ago.

Should have patented it.

Mine involved a hydrodynamically bad turbine to create cavitation in which air would collect.

[formercia]

8. snapping at the bubbles in the bathtub

You need a twerp to catch them.

[Bonhomme Richard]

5. I wonder how long you can go before having.......

to change or clean out the filter element that picks up all the small particulate that is in the seawater? I imagine you would have to filter a lot of seawater to get 8 liters of oxygen.

[benburch]

6. Your batteries will give out first.

And if you use a microscreen, you can have a wiper clear the screen repeatedly.

[AGiordino]

9. This concept is NOT a REBREATHER

The mechanics behind this device consist of a centrifuge element that separates the oxygen out of solution in seawater. No scrubber involved as in a rebreather. The only downside is oxygen poisoning at depths below one atmosphere or ~30ft. But in most places, that 's where the interesting things are still in touch with depth filtered sunlight.

[oneighty]

11. This idea has been around for years

All kinds of problems here. One cannot get enough volume of oxygen to take care the needs of the minute volume of the diver. Active swimmer might require a cubic foot volume per minute He cannot breathe pure oxygen safely over two atm absolute.

If there is no oxygen dissolved in the water (a common thing)the device is useless.

The first time such a device was used that I am aware of was in the sixties-a semi-permeable membrane.

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