|
|
It is a pleasure to add these pages to my homepage. The
Innerspace "Porpoise
Pack 1" has undoubtedly much more historical and design criteria
I could ever mention here. Nevertheless it is an incredibly high tech unit
for it's time. We are talking 1974. Innerspace is testing a system based on
the Biomarine CCR 1000 from the
Biomarine Industries in Devon. The unit was brought by
Mr. F. Parker
involved in the development of the rebreathers used in the
Apollo program.
This information could only be presented with the help of several persons,
starting with the great help of Mr. Vance A Johnson, test diver of the unit.
Permission for this publication was given by Leon Scamahorn of
Innerspace, and
unbelievable effort was put into this report by
Stefan Besier! He photographed
the unit recently and added his professional comments to the photos. The
equipment made available for photos courtesy of Pete & Sharon at
Steam Machines
Incorporated I
want to thank all mentioned people for sharing this important information
with us. Since there is a big gap between the development of the
Electrolung and the latest units such as Inspiration,
Prism, Kiss and
Megalodon, I am very happy to fill in a bit of history here.
The pages published here are sometimes difficult to read, they where
scanned, collected, and almost 30 years old. Also the download time is
considerable since almost 50 photos are offered. It's worth waiting for!
I hope you enjoy reading these pages,
Janwillem Bech. |
The Rebreather Invasion
by
Leon P. Scamahorn
(Shadow diver)
© 1996 by Leon P. Scamahorn. Reproduction and distribution, in whole or
in part, is authorized provided credit is given to the author for the
content.
In the sixty's aerospace technology revolution was on. The
race to the moon and the technology supported it. While man was focusing
outward toward the stars there were a few aerospace engineers looking
inward, "innerspace". The technology being developed to support Astronauts
was also compatible for marine exploration. Gas tight zippers, high-density
waterproof materials, electronics, plastics, high and low pressure regulated
pneumatic plumbing, efficient CO2 scrubber breathing systems and small
galvanic oxygen sensors made advanced diving systems possible. As in the
aerospace industry, another race was on to develop innerspace life-support
systems that would support a diver at any depth for a great length of time.
Driven by Uncle Sam for military application and offshore oil companies,
systems were developed to support those types of mission driven
applications. One system in the latter sixty's rose above the rest. With the
current technology at that time the system capability was impressive, six
hour duration at any depth rated for a maximum depth of 1000 fsw.(2000 fsw
for saturation using passive and active thermal heating systems.) The US
Navy Experimental Diving Unit tested the system. They found the breathing
qualities and system integrity was second to none at the time. The failure
analysis on the research & development program exceeded most fighter
aircraft of that period, and has been the U.S. Navy's mainstay for almost
two decades. With an accumulation of over a million manned diving hours. The
system was a modified Bio-Marine CCR-1000 Called the Innerspace Porpoise
Pack one, a highly efficient and robust system that had no equal, and at
this current time systems as old as 20 years are still in operation.
The design criteria for the system was:
- Complete autonomous diver operations without umbilical or surface
support.
- Depth advantageous of mixed gas, such as minimal inert gas narcosis.
- No tell tail bubbles.
- Acoustically invisible.
- Maximize gas conservation.
- Increased overall safety.
- Capable of inert gas switches and oxygen Partial Pressure manipulation
to reduce decompression.
The commercial dive industry was interested in maximum gas conservation
and maximum diver productivity. Gas consumption at 1000 fsw ran about
$3,756.30 per hour, not including paying the diver and support equipment.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
OK, here are photos all made by
Stefan Besier. I want to thank him for this great job he did!
Stefan, I hope
people will enjoy your professional work, and also value your free of charge
cooperation! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Here are three units with consecutive serial numbers, 350-352. They
each have their own (very) heavy duty steel
- case with thick custom soft carry bag.
- I'll show them in the order I photographed them, helmets first, then
the rigs, and finally the spare kits.
- As you can see, there is a separate metal case for the helmets, which
in also each have their own soft carry bag. The bags are color coordinated
with the ones for the rigs and are made from the same heavy duty material.
Innerspace's logo is on the inside, and the bags are perfect fits.
- The helmets were contracted from Aquadyne and then adapted for the use
with the PP-1. Solid, commercial hardware.
-
- (note Janwillem: the helmets where a model Aquadyne DMC 7 adapted to
fit the PP-1)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- The rigs in their transport metal cases, wrapped
- inside the padded soft carry bags. Very well done.
- As you can see, these were owned and used by the
- International Marine & Petroleum Company
- for commercial oil work. Which explains the ragged
- look, they were working rigs.
-
|
|
|
|
(What about this very early
hammer head ? :) )) |
|
|
Picture #710 |
The box that contains the battery
on top and has the analog electronics on the bottom. Also the primary wrist
display with its warning lights. (Alarm - Low pO2 - 0.1
below setpoint - On setpoint - 0.1 above setpoint - High
pO2)
Finally two secondaries side-by-side. The yellow one was originally used
with the PP-1s, but they had problems
with the material and switched to the black display made from different
material.
As you can see in #710, the PP-1 had a solid handle, and screw on caps to
close the loop when removing the hoses.
Two items frequently missing on modern rebreathers. The two contends gauges
even have a tie-down for transport.
|
#713 |
|
|
|
#716 |
|
|
- Here two pictures of the rig standing up. You can clearly see the
simple, but heavy duty harness, and the equalizing holes in the case that
allow the counterlung to move. On the side metal latch and manual add
button. In frame 713 you can also see the power switch next to the D-ring
on the case (diver's left side). #716 with the cover removed. The flasks
are steel, between them on the bottom the space for the electronics
module.
- In the upper space between the flasks is the solenoid, above the
accumulator. Underneath the flasks is the ss pipework with filters and
manual add valves.
-
|
#718 |
|
#719 |
|
#720 |
|
#721 |
- The center section, undeniably the best and most unusual design
feature of the PP-1, MK series and whatever other
- name they marketed by. 718 shows has just the locking nut removed, the
sensors holder is visible in the center behind the cover. The white
'holes' in the metal scrubber housing are scrim covered ports that allow
the gas to flow through the scrubber. Exhalation hose mounts left,
inhalation on the right side. 720 has the little cover removed and shows
the sensor array. No sensor face is on the same plane. 721 is the canister
side of the center section with the scrubber removed. On the top left the
port that allows exhaled gas to enter. From here it passes through the
before mentioned ports in the canister through the scrubber bed. 719 again
shows were the scrubbed gas exits the canister.
- The heated, moist gas hits the metal dome, against which it
condensates. Here the gas flow is split, some of the gas is routed through
the gap between the canister and the housing into the counterlung. The
rest flows past the sensors where the amount of O2 is measured. Between
the condensation on the dome and the reduced amount of gas (and hence of
moisture) sensor condensation is not a problem for this rebreather.
-
|
#724 |
|
#725 |
|
#726 |
|
#727 |
- Here two more views of the axial annular scrubber. #726 shows the
fairly shallow but very wide container.
- As well as the fill port, that is also seen in #725. This is one of
the drawbacks of the 15's design, the small opening makes filling the
scrubber (as well as dumping wet absorbent) very inconvenient an
relatively time consuming.
- The other two shots are overall shots, with # 724 showing one of the
support cases in the back.
-
|
#728 |
|
#731 |
|
#733 |
|
#734 |
|
- #728 - the two PP-1' s packed in there riged cases. Did I mention I
really like the cases and bags?
- #731 - shows them again, with one of the two support cases. As well as
the Innerspace logo, which, like the name, is still used by the company
that manufactures the
Megalodon today.
- # 733 & 734 - are the original log books of the two units. System
logs, not dive logs, showing sensor replacement and maintenance. Even the
gas transfer log is still available. Not bad for 27 year old systems!
-
|
#732 |
|
#735 |
|
#736 |
|
#737 |
- Here are some pictures of the supply cases.
- # 736 is one of the two. It has a complete set of tools (735) mounted
in the lid. The tool set folds forward on a strap or down entirely. Behind
it is space for tables and paperwork. There you'll also find the yellow
flags to write you deco plan on, as well as note pre-dive notes like
calibration etc. (732) All color coordinated of course, when they sold
this as a complete system they mend it. As you can see in the close-up
(#737), the case is full with spares, cables, wires, seals, screws ...
just about anything you could possibly need. Including an original spare
battery.
-
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- The battery is a Duracell, shaped so that it will fit into its
compartment on top of the electronics. (738&739) Batteries were sold for
$38.95, sensors cost $180 each. Those are from an original spares price
list, a replacement secondary (the analog one) cost $931.10 The final two
shots are of the second parts case, which holds two additional steel
flasks, wrapped of course), as well as hoses and additional spares like
the battery cap that's shown.
- Even seeing the way that the PP-1 systems were really configured as a
very complete system the original price of around $30,000. (especially in
1975) would have been a very high price to pay for private divers.
-
|
-
Photo courtesy of Innerspace
Systems
|
A final word about the photos.
Since the download time has to acceptable I had to change the resolution and
size of the original pictures. I can assure you that the original quality is
fantastic! All photos were made by
Stefan Besier. |
first publication 31-08-2004 |
|
|