This page deals with dry suits. I know that you are probably thinking why, on a spacesuit and pressure suit page, I would put something about dry diving suits. In some instances, dry suits are pressure suits. The Mark V (MkV) diving suit, (the one you see in old films, with the huge copper helmet with the small windows) is a pressure suit. It maintains a stable, hospitable internal air pressure, to protect the wearer from the outside environment. Take a look.
This is the Mark Five diving suit. (MkV) It was first produced in the 1920's and was the Navy's most widely used underwater garment. Total, the suit weighed about 200 pounds above water, and it was very cumbersome. (DUH) It was used until the 1970's, when SCUBA gear outphased surface-supplied dry dives. It was used mostly for salvage. After it became obsolete, but when dry suits were needed on rare occasions, it was replaced with much lighter dry gear. The MkV had a 60 pound brass helmet and breatspiece that fitted over a rubberized one-piece canvas body suit. Air was supplied from a pump on the surface, and entered the suit through a pipe in the back of the helmet. Air was vented off through a valve on the helmet.
Here is a good link to a good dry-suit diving page.
Jim Boyd's Hardhat Diving Homepage
This is the Drager atmospheric underwater hard suit. This suit is still used today, and is completely rigid. The suit is made of an inflexible polymer, and it bends ONLY at the joints. It can be pressurized to 14.4 psi, or exactly one atmosphere, so there is no decompression needed. This suit can reach a depth of up to 1,000 meters, much more than soft suits, like the Mark V.
Back to main page.
This is the Drager atmospheric underwater hard suit. This suit is still used today, and is completely rigid. The suit is made of an inflexible polymer, and it bends ONLY at the joints. It can be pressurized to 14.4 psi, or exactly one atmosphere, so there is no decompression needed. This suit can reach a depth of up to 1,000 meters, much more than soft suits, like the Mark V.