The Sladen Suit was a heavy type of British divers'
drysuit made by
Siebe Gorman
Siebe Gorman & Company Ltd was a British company that developed diving equipment and breathing equipment and worked on commercial diving and marine salvage projects. The company advertised itself as 'Submarine Engineers'. It was founded by A ...
. It is entered by a wide rubber tube at the
umbilicus: this tube is folded and tied off before the diver dives. It was used by British
manned torpedo
Human torpedoes or manned torpedoes are a type of diver propulsion vehicle on which the diver rides, generally in a seated position behind a fairing. They were used as secret naval weapons in World War II. The basic concept is still in use.
...
riders and for general underwater work.
It was sometimes nicknamed "Clammy Death".
The first model had two small glazed viewports. It was redesigned with the single oval flip-up viewport so the wearer could get
binoculars
Binoculars or field glasses are two refracting telescopes mounted side-by-side and aligned to point in the same direction, allowing the viewer to use both eyes ( binocular vision) when viewing distant objects. Most binoculars are sized to be hel ...
to his eyes.
"Universal" rebreather
There was an
oxygen rebreather called the "Universal" that was designed to be used with it. The Universal was a long-dive derivative of the
Davis Submerged Escape Apparatus
The Davis Submerged Escape Apparatus (also referred to as DSEA), was an early type of oxygen rebreather invented in 1910 by Sir Robert Davis, head of Siebe Gorman and Co. Ltd., inspired by the earlier Fleuss system, and adopted by the Royal Nav ...
.
In popular culture
*
Brian Evenson
Brian Evenson (born August 12, 1966) is an American academic and writer of both literary fiction and popular fiction, some of the latter being published under B. K. Evenson. His fiction is often described as literary minimalism, but also draws in ...
's collection of literary horror, ''Windeye'', includes a story entitled, and about, "The Sladen Suit."
References
External links
description and images
Rebreathers
Diving environmental protection equipment
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