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In 1942 Hass planned an
expedition. Because of the raging war, however, it could be only carried
out in the Aegean Sea, not in the tropical ocean. During this
expedition, he planned to combine the great mobility provided by
flippers with a self-contained breathing apparatus In the spring of
1941, Hass met Hermann Stelzner, the technical director of the Dräger
Company in Lübeck, Germany. Together they rebuilt the
"Dräger-Gegenlunge", an oxygen rebreather, and made alterations to the
breathing bag and the oxygen supply valve. The continuous flow regulator
fitted to the Gegenlunge was replaced by a simple push-button valve,
allowing the diver to manually admit oxygen to the breathing bag
according to his varying consumption and to control his buoyancy. To
produce an advantageous center of gravity in all swimming positions, the
breathing bag was moved to the back. Hass replaced the original goggles
he had been using up until this time, with a circular diving mask that
enclosed the eyes and nose. The use of flippers turned the
self-contained oxygen rebreather into a swimdiving apparatus, which Hass
used constantly on all his expeditions from 1942 on. |
The
use of the 138 rebreather y Hans Hass is part of a ongoing search
for facts now,
I will soon publish
further details. |
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Comment from Peter Immerz:
A short answer for a start: I will dig out more and more precise
information when I can allocate time.
The 138 was developed by Ing. Hermann Stelzner at Dräger (derived from
a submarine rescue appartus : U-Boot Tauchretter) for the inventor of
the modern swim diving method (oposed to the the classic walking hard
hat divers) Hans Hass. The unit I have now was initially owned by a
member of Hans Hass Xarifa 2 expedition - Klaus Wissel. He actually
drowned with this unit on that expedition.
After that it was owned by Klaus friend Ortwin Sacher-Woenckhaus who
took it to Hurghada at a time when there was no tourism at all! The book
Ludwig Sillner, "Ein kleiner Sprung ins große Meer" (A small step in the
big sea) describes how they did a 7500km trip with two cars, one of them
a VW Beetle, and it has some pictures. Also I have original pictures of
the unit and its owner from the oldest german diving magazin (approx.
1956).
If
I fix a small hole in the breathing bag the unit is ready to dive. |
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