Visit the Deane section first to learn all about the subject from the beginning

Augustus Siebe

Siebe was born in Pruisen in 1788. He was an engineer and worked as an artillery officer in the army. After the battle at Waterloo he emigrated to England to settle in London as a precision engineer. He turned out to be at the right place at the right time. The economy was at her top in the middle of the 19th century.

In 1828 Siebe got a patent on a rotating water pump. Sales numbers were formidable and Siebe had his first financial success. He moved to 5 Denmark street in Soho London. Siebe got married, had 9 children and his company went very well.

Around 1834 the Deane brothers consult Augustus Siebe to turn their "smoke helmet" into a real divers helmet. This helmet was succesfully used by Charles Deane in many salvage operations. He was not the only one, other divers used the Deane equipment as well. One of them we already mentioned in the Deane section. It was a young and clever engineer, George Edwards. After using the Deane gear for over a year, he suggested safety improvements. 

His idea was to dress the diver in a full dress (instead of a short jacket) and clamp this dress, by means of 20 bolts, to the breastplate. Thus, the helmet could never flood again, even if the diver would stand on his head. The only thing Edwards wanted to reach was to improve safety underwater. Fot this reason he gave Siebe the full and free use of his diving dress design in 1838. Edwards did not take out a patent.

In 1839, Siebe produced the first diving helmet and dress, based on Edwards' design. He used 12 equally spaced bolts to clamp the full dress to the breastplate. This was a huge success. In 1840, the helmet was used by the Royal Navy on the wreck of the Royal George. The diving team, lead by Colonel Pasley, was very satisfied with Siebe's helmet.More than they were with Deane's helmet. Pasley too suggested some improvements to the helmet. He suggested to seperate the bonnet and the breastplate by means of an interrupted thread facility. Siebe took over the advise and thus the basic design for all later diving helmets was born.
  • The first open dress. Air could circulate free through helmet and dress.
  • The first closed dress. Everything was sealed of. There was no risk of filling up with water.

 

To the general public, Siebe is known as the Godfather of Diving. After reading this and the Deane section you have learned that his personal efforts to develop the diving helmet were not so big. Siebe would never have become so successful if it wasn't for Deane, Edwards and Pasley..........

Siebe managed his business together with son in law Gorman. For that reason later nametags carrie the name Siebe, Gorman and Company. The company is no longer in business.

Different types were made:

12 bolt, 8 bolt, 6 bolt, 3 bolt, 2 bolt, no bolt, flange and 12 bolt square corselet.

In some cases helmets were supplied with round side windows, a topflight, an extra air inlet, an extra air outlet on the corselet. You can imagine how many different Siebe's you can encounter ! Have a look at some fine examples: