Sir Robert Henry Davis (1870 – 1965) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

inventor and director of the

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 Aug ...

company. His main invention was 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 Na ...

, an

oxygen rebreather A rebreather is a breathing apparatus that absorbs the carbon dioxide of a user's breathing, exhaled breath to permit the rebreathing (recycling) of the substantially unused oxygen content, and unused inert content when present, of each breath. ...

that Davis patented for the first time in 1910, inspired by the rebreathers that

Henry Fleuss Henry Albert Fleuss (13 June 1851 – 6 January 1933) was a pioneering diving engineer, and Master Diver for Siebe, Gorman & Co. of London. Fleuss was born in Marlborough, Wiltshire in 1851. In 1878 he was granted a patent which improved rebr ...

patented as of 1876. Davis breathing set was destined to allow British

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

crews to escape when their ship started to sink. While still directing

Davis was the first British to buy a licence from the Cousteau- Gagnan Aqua-Lung (from the French company

La Spirotechnique Aqua Lung International (formerly La Spirotechnique) is a large and well-known firm which makes scuba and other self-contained breathing apparatus, and other diving equipment. It produced the Aqua-Lung line of regulators, like the CG45 (1945 ...

), starting commercialization of

scuba set A scuba set, originally just scuba, is any breathing apparatus that is entirely carried by an underwater diver and provides the diver with breathing gas at the ambient pressure. ''Scuba'' is an anacronym for self-contained underwater breathing ...

s in Britain as of 1948. Siebe Gorman aqualungs ended being known under the name of ''tadpole sets''.The Siebe Gorman ''tadpole set'' is here described by a French collector.
/ref> Davis Road in

Chessington Chessington is an area in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames within Greater London. Historically part of Surrey, today it is the largest salient of Greater London into that county. At the 2011 census it had a population of 18,973. The ...

(where

's factory was for a while) was named after him.

Publications

He wrote the books: * ''Diving Scientifically and Practically Considered. Being a Diving Manual and Handbook of Submarine Appliances'', first edition 1909, published by Siebe, Gorman & Co., Ltd. in London. * ''A Diving Manual and Handbook of Submarine Appliances'', second edition 1919, published by Siebe, Gorman & Co., Ltd. in London. * ''Breathing in Irrespirable Atmospheres'', and in some cases, also underwater, first published 1948 by St. Catherine Press, Ltd in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. It has 376 pages, c.250 photographs, and diagrams. * 4th edition, published 1935.

References

External links

"Breathing in Irrespirable Atmospheres"

"The Latest Means of Deep Sea Exploration", May 1932, Popular Mechanics
Drawings of ''The Davis Deep-Sea Observation & Directional Chamber'', a little-known Davis invention]
"Historical Diver No.6 Winter 1995 - pages 16-22"
1870 births 1965 deaths British inventors Underwater diving in the United Kingdom {{UK-engineer-stub