divers bends over or stumbles and water enters the helmet: sometimes with disatrous results.                                                                                                                               

     At about this same time, Augustus Siebe ( Prussian but living in England ), was developing his own open diving dress. He mated the top part of the diving suit with the helmet and let air escape at the divers waist. In 1840, Siebe modified this open dress into a closed system, a closed diving dress.  Siebe is generally considered the father of the closed diving dress but he most probably was using information from  the Deane brothers and George Edwards as well as others ( please refer to John Bevans article in the Historical Diver, Numbers 3 & 4, 94-95). The divers suit was sealed at the waist and now the diver could bend over and was free to do serious underwater work without  fear of water entering the helmet. With many improvements and innovations this is the type of commercial diving rig still in use today. Let’s look at some of the closed dress diving helmets you are apt to encounter.

Examine the helmet in Fig. 101B. At first glance it appears to be a shallow water helmet, but it is not. The suit for this helmet is open at the neck for the diver to squeeze in. The helmet is unbolted from the breastplate (corselet) and the breastplate is placed over the divers head. The suit neck comes up through the inside of the breastplate and three reinforced holes on the suit are mated with the holes in the neck ring.  The helmet is placed over the divers head  and the three pieces; helmet, breastplate and suit are bolted together to form a closed diving dress. This helmet is termed a 3-light (ports or windows), 3-bolt helmet.

Fig. 101B

Helmets are often called hats, so this could also be termed a 3-light, 3 bolt hat.  Now look at the helmet in fig. 101C.

     This is a 3-light, 12-bolt helmet. Instead of using bolts to mate the helmet with the breastplate, the helmet and breastplate both have an interrupted thread. The helmet is removed by a 1/8 turn to the divers left. There is a recessed area ( some older

helmets don’t have a recessed gasket area ) in the breastplate neck ring with a gasket ( usually leather ), that makes the seal when the helmet and breastplate are screwed together (1/8 turn to divers right).  At the outer edges of the breastplate are four bands (brailes) that fit over 12 studs on the breastplate.  The nuts and brailes are removed and the diver steps into the diving dress, pulls it up around his shoulders and the breastplate is put on over his head. The 12 studs mate with holes in the suit and the brailes are placed over the studs and tightened with the wing nuts. The helmet is placed over the divers head and twisted 1/8 of a turn to seal. There is usually some type of locking device at the back side of the neck ring to insure that the helmet does not twist loose underwater.

Fig. 101C

     You will see variations on the above theme with the breastplate sporting 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 or 12 bolts with lights ( windows ) numbering

1, 2, 3 or 4. To add to the confusion a mating of the helmets depicted in fig. 101 B and C produces a helmet with both neck ring bolts and breastplate bolts. Thus you might end up with a 3-light, 12-bolt breastplate, 4-bolt neck ring helmet. Say that three times fast!  Most of these helmets will have neck ring bolts that are hinged to the breastplate and use wing nuts to tighten.

    Looking at the back side of our 3-light, 12-bolt ( Fig. 101D ) we see an air exhaust valve on the divers right. The diver can reach up and adjust the outflow of air or turn it off completely. Mated to the inside of this valve is a button or plunger that when pushed by the divers head will exhaust air rapidly. The helmet in fig. 101E is a Mark V ( okay, an artistically challenged representation or an obvious reproduction ). The exhaust valve has been moved closer to the right front of the helmet near the face plate. To keep exhaust bubbles from hampering the divers vision a tube ( banana tube ) routes the exhaust to the back of the helmet.

     The Mark V also adds another innovation, the hinged face plate. The face plates of the other helmets depicted on these pages, screw on and off. They can easily be dropped, misplaced or fall overboard. Inside the Mark V and most other helmets you will see air channels that originate at the inside air inlet. They channel incoming air over the lights and help keep them clear. Helmets with a fourth light above the face plate may experience fogging of the face plate  due to the interruption of incoming air at the fourth light. The Mark V has a valve, the spit cock, on the divers left near the face plate. This valve can act as an air exhaust when the diver is on his right side with the normal exhaust valve near or in the bottom. The spit valve can also be used to bring water into the divers mouth to spit on the face plate to defog it. Looking at the back of most helmets you will see an air inlet fitting and a communication fitting. Newer helmets will have a one way or non-return valve as the air line enters the helmet. This valve will keep water from entering the helmet if the air line is severed, but more importantly it will prevent a rapid loss of pressure that would precipitate a helmet squeeze (where the divers body is pushed, by outside water pressure, into the helmet).  The communication fitting allows telephone equipment to be installed in the helmet or worn on the divers head.

     Congratulations you have now graduated from Helmets 101. You are now ready to do graduate work on your own. Start looking for out of print books, articles and manufacturers catalogs and plan to spend time wandering through antique shops, boat yards and web pages looking for helmets and diving equipment. If diving history or helmet collecting really interests you, I would like to make two recommendation. First join the Historical Diving Society USA and when you do please tell them M.D. Giltzow (#937) sent you ( we get free stuff for referring new members). Secondly,  think about purchasing Leon Lyon’s excellent book ‘Helmets of the Deep’. I know it’s expensive, but I assure you it is well worth the price. 

     To further your education check out our Reproductions and Our Collection pages. Good luck and good hunting - Mike