Some of the mysteries of how divers are able to work underwater are unlocked in the color film, “Diving for Science,” produced by the United States Navy. The film, produced in the early 1970s, opens in the murky green below the waves with Navy divers exploring the watery depths while a narrator explains its importance — from deriving protein to feed a growing population to creating the next generation of antibiotics. At mark 03:30 the viewer learns of saturation diving (deep-sea diving in which the diver’s bloodstream is saturated with helium or other suitable gas at the pressure of the surrounding water, so that the decompression time afterward is independent of the duration of the dive) developed by Captain George Bond, who is introduced at mark 04:00. A variety of scenes that test man’s ability to remain underwater for longer periods follows as Bond explains the various physiological barriers to deep-sea diving, including the dangers of losing too much body heat. Communicating under water is also important, which leads to a discussion of the use of a transponder (beginning at mark 09:25) which sends and receives sound waves and converts them into intelligible speech, and later how an acoustic navigation system helps divers “see” underwater while also giving them their true course and speed.
Mark 12:45 introduces us to the Navy’s Scientist-In-The-Sea (SITS) program, a multidisciplined, full-time, summer-long, graduate credit program that exposed students to the underwater life-support and data collecting technology available at that time. The first course was offered in 1970, with the film dedicating several minutes to the program. (By 1976, 60 students from around the country had completed the program across five summers.) A visit to the Naval Coastal Systems Laboratory is next, starting at mark 18:30, where oceanographers were working on new ways to explore the ocean floor via simulated underwater environments. Such experiments will help expand the knowledge of mankind, says the narrator at mark 26:15, “and day by day that knowledge is replacing the mystery which has shrouded the ocean since men first entered it.”
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
