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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, December 5, 1968
Experiment in simulated dive
Divers face high pressure
DURHAM, N.C. (UPI) — Duke University and the U.S. Navy launched an experiment here Monday to learn if man can remain and work for extended periods under pressures encountered 1,000 feet beneath the sea.
Five "divers" are being subjected in a chamber to 30 times the normal atmospheric pressure. If all goes well, they will remain three days under maximum pressure, then spend 11 more days "ascending" from their simulated dive.
The Navy said it is believed this is the first time men have
been subjected for an extended period to this much pressure. Previous brief dives to simulated depths of more than 1,000 feet have demonstrated that men can survive at tremendous pressures.
The Duke-Navy experimenters hope to reep knowledge from extensive testing of men and equipment under scientific conditions.
The "dive" began late Monday afternoon in Duke's $1 million hyperbaric high pressure complex. The men plan to spend two weeks in a cylinder 36-feet long and 11 feet in diameter. Compressed air or gases will be forced
into the chamber to create pressure.
The pressure will build until it equals that a man would feel swimming in the water 1,000 feet down. Men have ventured much lower in pressurized diving bells and submarines, but the protection of the artificial atmosphere inside these devices also limits him to the role of an observer. It is felt that if man is to exploit the ocean, particularly the continental shelves, he must learn to move about in the ocean environment instead of taking his own environment with him.
Legislative faucets could turn off water problems
WASHINGTON (UPI)—Americans, within the next 50 years or so, will be using more water than nature provides, according to a blunt and urgent report submitted to Congress by President Johnson.
The report, termed "sobering" by the President, carried "stark warnings" to the country, Johnson said. He pointed specifically to pollution destroying the nation's rivers, the recent drought in the Northeast and the "nightmare of ravaging floods still hovering over too many American communities."
He urged Congress to give top priority to the problems of drought, floods and pollution.
"A nation that fails to plan intelligently for the development and protection of its precious waters will be condemned to wither because of its shortsightedness," Johnson said in a letter forwarding the 472-page report. "The hard lessons of history are clear, written on the deserted sands and ruins of once proud civilizations."
Johnson said ample supplies of water to support a growing population and an expanding economy could not be taken for granted. The report, he said, including estimates that expected use of water in America by the year 2020 would exceed natural runoff, the traditional supply of water for mankind.
The report, prepared by the Water Resources Council headed by Interior Secretary Stewart L. Udall, included regional evaluations of water resources:
Alaska, with its "extensive and impressive" water resources, has perhaps the fewest water problems. Other areas not considered critical included the Pacific Northwest, Tennessee, Hawaii and Puerto Rico.
-California, the report said could get enough water by transfer from the north to the popu
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lous south, but desalting and waste water reclamation might prove cheaper in the long run.
The lower Mississippi region was viewed as "water rich" and a strategic area for future economic development because of the heavy flow of the Mississippi River.
Areas with particularly severe problems included the lower Colorado River basin, chiefly in Arizona, and the Rio Grande area of New Mexico and Texas. In Arizona, the report said, the dependable water supply already was inadequate to meet needs. In the Rio Grande area, it said, projected economic growth could not be maintained unless water problems are solved.
In the Great Lakes region, increased water use would add to the serious pollution problems already plaguing Lakes Michigan, Erie and Ontario, the report said.
The hazards the "divers" will face are many.
They will breathe a mixture of 95.45 per cent helium, 3.6 nitrogen and one per cent oxygen.
Too much nitrogen at a depth of about 250 feet has a narcotic effect on divers. Some have reported a "martini" effect, similar to downing four or five martinis before dinner. Judgment is impaired.
Thus, for deep dives, the inert gas helium is substituted for nitrogen as a "carrier" gas for oxygen.
Oxygen, while giving man life, can also be poisonous if too much gets into his body.
The pressure compresses all of the gases in the body and leads to another danger, the bends. If a diver returns too rapidly to normal pressure, the gases expand and bubble like a freshly opened bottle of soda pop. This is often fatal. To prevent it from happening, the "divers" are brought back to surface temperature in slow stages so that the body can safely rid itself of excess gases.
The experiment is sponsored by Duke and the U.S. Navy's experimental diving unit.
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