New Britain Herald Newspaper, March 22, 1929, Page 35

. 177 7 A R AR ER, 2 z/mwmm' TR AT M NI 73177 o e e P i PASSED ALL TESTS Diver Hay Wearing the New, Perfected “Third Lun owa]hird Lung lorBrealhiqg UnderWa{er ~ Triumphant New Invention of Three U. S. Navy Men to Prevent Subsea Tragedies Like the S-4 Disaster EVOLUTION OF “LUNG Four Specimens of Individual Oxygen Tanks Designed, Through a Period of Years, to Prevent Deaths of Sailors in Submerged Submarines. to Right) in Shape, Size and General Handiness of the Models. " Which Proved Its Efficacy Both in Tank and Deep Water Tests. Department has tried desperately to solve the problem of breathing under water. During the past four years research and experimentation have yielded various inventions to sup- ply men trapped in submarines beneath the sca with oxygen batteries. And now, after costly and brain- taxing tests, the Government believes that it has discovered a literal “third lung,” to prevent such tragedies as that of the S-4, which went down off Provincetown, Mass., a year ago with the loss of thirty-five lives. The “third lung,” invented by Frank FOR twelve years the U. S. Navy M. Hobson, civilian engineer in the Bureau of Construction and Repair; Clarence L. Tibbals, chief gunner, and Charles B. Momsen, Lieutenant, U. S. Navy, is an individual breathing ap- paratus designed to permit the escape of submarine crews imprisoned in sub- merged, disabled submarines. It car- ries a store of pure oxygen of sufficient quantity to enable a man to make a safe ascent to the surface from a maxi- mum depth of 350 feet. The “lung,” it is asserted, will func. tion flawlessly at any depth that does not destroy the craft. The average modern submarine could scarcely with. stand the external pressure of a more Note the Improvement (from Left The One at Extreme Left presents the First Crude Device; That at Extreme Right, the Perfected “Lung.” than 300-foot depth. Unaware of the Navy’s long series of experiments, the pu large gave vent to violent cism during and after the S-4 traged Letters in which bitter invective was mingled with fantastically impossible suggestions for the prevention of similar tragedies were received by the hundreds. Mean- while the Navy experts continued their painstaking and unrecognized efforts to perfect the “third lung.” Equipment was devised that would simulate, on the surface of water, con- ditions obtaining far down below. Enormous tanks and special decom- pression chambers, fitted with high pressuré air systems, were built, and glass sight ports, to permit observation from the outside, were inserted into these tanks and chambers. The ensuing tests were exhaustive. Using the Navy Yard and a diving tank and belt, men were released from the lock and ascended from forty foot depths unprotec by oxygen stimula- tion. Their discomfort was slight, con- sisting merely of a sense of pressure i e their bodies. Such ascents from depths of more than forty feet, how- ever, produced bloated stomachs and distended neck glands. It had been suggested, too, that men could emerge from subnierged sub- marines without any special protective device and swim to the surface in the so-called air bubble supposed to rise from the escape lock when the over- head hatchway is opened. The bubble was synthetically produced, but experi- ments showed that the prope vhich had been attributed to it were largely non-existent, and that it would offer small protection to the swimmers One grave factor that had to be considered was the dreaded “Caisson Disease,” or *“‘Divers’ Bend,” which re sults from absorption of nitrogen by the blood and tissues when high pres sure air is breathed. When the pres- sure is relaxed by the man rising in the water, the nitrogen is rele d as gas bubbles whick collect around the heart, causing intense pain, paralysis and even death. Slow desaturation, releasing the gas Il bubbles, is the only way to TRAGEDY RECALLED 1f the “Third Lung” Lives Up to the Navy's Hopes, Prevented. Photo Shows the Submarine S-4, with Flag at Half Mast in Honor of Men Who Died Abaard Her, Being Towed to Boston. prevent such occurrences, so tes! vere n to show just how often a i ould halt on the way up to per- mit of this desaturation. The next thing needful was to es- tablish how much pure oxygen could be used on the men without injuring them. The outcome was the fascina- ting discovery th while breathing pure oxygen of pri res over thirty HOSPITAL FOR “BENDS” “Caisson Disease,” or “Diver’s Bends,” Was an Important Factor the “Lung’s” Inventors Had to Considered in Perfecting Their Device. This Malady, Occasioned by the Blood’s Absorption of Nitrogen, Causes Paralysis and Death. Photo Shows Interior of Decompression Chamber at Washington Navy Yard, Where Treatment Is Given. pounds for lengthy periods was in- rious, much higher pressures could over short periods. s up to seven 105 pounds pressure een used in the tests, of the periods is still pheres, of kept secret. The present perfected “lung”—it has met every test—is a small, inflata. ble bag about a foot square of the bel- lows type. Insid a canister contain- ioxide filter of soda lime. r he poisoned exhaled air, which can be used over again. The bag is connected with a mouthpiece by control the direction of the flow of inhaled and exhaled air. And the whole appliance weighs only two and a quarter pounds! A nose piece, which had been designed and attached to the mouthpiece, was dis. carded after experiments proved it un- necessary. Thorough tests of the “lung” by divers in the tank at the Washington Navy Yard were succeeded by a real deep water test in Chesapeake Bay, off Barren Island. A diving bell ex- tly simulating the escape locks on the V-boats—latest type of American Navy submarine—was lowered 155 feet and three divers escaped with ease. Why the Ousted Co-ed Shed No Tears When the Dean Was Sent to Prison HEN Mrs. Florence E. S. Knapp, one- time dean of the College of Domestic Sci ence, Syracuse University, was sent to jail for misuse of census fun many people shook thi heads and deplored the occur rence. But there was one irl, a former pupil at Syracuse in Mrs. Knapp's department, who shed no tears when she read the news. The explanation of this mirth was found in the fact that, during Mrs. Knapp's * regime at Syracuse. pretty Beatrice 0. Anthony, 22, daughter of a wealthy Binghamton, N. Y., manu- facturer, had been given her walking papers from the university solely on the gcore that she was “not the Mrs. Florence E. S. Knapp, Dean of ti Left: Beatrice Anthony, “Unwanted Co-ed.” back to Syracuse; was re- admitted, continued studies. October, 1926, was told iss Marguerite Wood- ciate dean, “We ou're a typical nothing rice insists Woodworth Peters, it 1 had a righ Dean Iva L. Peters, of Syracuse University, Which Miss Amthony Was Asked to Leave Syracuse type.” Beatrice sought legal re- instatement, and Supreme Court Justice E. N. Smith trice Anthony Matriculated There. “Wasn't Her Suit Because She the Syracuse Type. to Compel Them to Reinstate decided that the university’s ruling was ‘“‘repugnant in its very terms.” But—the Appelate Division of the Supreme Court reversed the Smith ruling and dismissed wistful Miss An- thony’s complaint. Now the whole vexatious tangle is up to the New York State Court of Appeals. Eventually it may reach the ears of the Supreme Court of the United States, for both sides, teeth gritted, say they’ll fight to a finish. What is the stand of the Unt- versity on Miss Anthony’s case? Here's the way is was crystailized by an at- torney, Le Roy B Williams, during the heari; "Um\grsity attendance is a privilege, not a right, and a student may be Right: Marguerite Wood- worth, Who Is Considered the Syracuse “Type.” dropped at any time without explan- Summarize carecr at Syracuse was a Etered the Unive 1923, matriculating in Anthony’s follows: ‘ College of ptember, u while she Domestic Florence E. S. Knapp wa Knapp is now chiefly of her subseque ase of census funds was Secretary of State of Oopyrignt, 1929, Internationsl Festure Kareice, tne. Grest Bri s W 4, Yy e ] Her May United States With 1926 h turned home September, 1926, went Reach the Supreme