In the summer of 2001 I was at a friend's pool, and I was diving down 12 feet to the bottom to
collect all of
the goggles and toys which had migrated there. As I couldn't hold my breath very long, I had to make
many
trips down to the bottom to collect everything, and I thought, "I wish I had some way to stay under
water
longer." Since then I have been on a never-ending search for ways to breathe comfortably under
water.
My first attempt was when I discovered the nature of pressure and buoyancy. I got two long tubes and
two check
valves (one or exhaling and one for inhaling. I did know that I didn’t want to suffocate) and I
tried to use
them as a long snorkel. Of course the first time I tried to use it I realized that the pressure
underwater is
so great, any deeper than two feet is too deep to breath.
One summer I happened to come across a large high-volume air pump used for blowing up air
mattresses. Of
course I had to take it apart to find out how it worked. As it turned out, it was also a double
acting pump,
meaning it blows air out and sucks air in, on both the 'push' and 'pull' strokes.
I obtained about twenty feet of rubber hose from Home Depot, and after about two days of glueing and
testing
in the bathtub, I took it to my pool. That's when I discovered that I needed someone to stand on the
side of
the pool and pump it for me. As it turned out, that's what older brothers are for.
The longest that I have spent underwater at one time with this apparatus is about 15 minutes. And
while this
is enough time to prove its effectiveness, there are a few things which make this device
impractical: 1) a
second person does have to pump in order for the first person to stay under water, 2) it is very
tiring to
pump, and 3) the diver must stay within 20 feet (or however long the hose is) of the pump. However,
in spite
of these things, this was a very effective device and a lot of fun to play around with.
Unfortunately the
plastic pump broke one winter after a few summers of mid-day sunlight. So I had to come up with a
new way to
breathe under water.
June 28, 2007
I made my second device out of a pink helium tank my dad found and saved for me. This was one of the
easier
projects of mine. I purchased 20 feet of rubber tubing, a few brass parts and put it together in
about 20
minutes. There was one difficult thing I had to do... put in a tire stem valve I got from a car
repair shop
near my house. I first drilled a hole in the top side of the tank, then filed it out slightly to get
rid of
the burrs and sharp edges. Then I proceeded to push the valve backwards into the hole. I tied a
string to the
valve in case I dropped it into the tank, in which case there would be no way of getting it out.
I put the bendy nozzle thingy that came off of the helium tank used for blowing up balloons, on to
the end of
the rubber tube.
Then I had to try it. So I started pumping it up with a bike pump, and realized that the tank was so
big it
would take hours to pump it up with a bike pump. After searching around for a week or two I found a
gas
station that has an air compressor they don't charge to use. I pressurized it and went to the pool
as soon as
I could. I set the tank down next to a ladder, wrapped the hose around the metal hand rail to keep
the tank
out of the pool and the area around the valve dry. I stayed at the bottom of my five-foot-deep pool
about 25
minutes. I did get a few crazy looks, and luckily there was no lifeguard around just then..
March 23, 2009
With the third device I built I wanted to be more self contained. I got hold of a small empty fire
extinguisher. I cleaned out all of the gross chemicals inside, drilled a hole in the top and put in
a tire
valve stem. Then I glued a two- or three- foot long rubber hose on to the nozzle of the fire
extinguisher. I
also happened to have a small brass air valve lying around, which I fastened onto the end of the
hose to serve
as a "flow regulator".
To use this scuba, I pumped it to 100 psi with a bike pump, held the end of the rubber tube in my
mouth, and
jumped in the water. When I needed to take a breath I had to push down on the fire extinguisher
handle. I
adjusted the flow with the small valve.
After a few times of using this in the pool, I decided it was useless for the most part. I could
hold my
breath longer than I could breathe with this thing, simply because the tank was so small.Ï