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.

 

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To the general public Siebe was known as the Godfather of diving, of course this is due in part, to the efforts of Deane, Paisley, Edwards and others.

The partnership of Siebe and Gorman was established in 1868 when Augustus Siebe retired from the manufacturing business. By that time he had produced hundreds of helmets and pumps as well as many other inventions. The company was established as Siebe & Gorman in 1870 at the address of 5 Denmark Street, Soho by one of Augustus Siebe’s son and his son in law William Augustus Gorman who had married his daughter Mary.

Augustus Siebe died at Denmark Street in 1872.

Augustus Siebe 1788 -1872

Siebe & Gorman traded at this address until 1876 at which time they moved to larger premises at Westminster Bridge Road in Lambeth.
The company continued to grow due to the demand for the equipment and in 1881 the company changed the name to Siebe Gorman & Co.

In 1882 it is worth noting here that a young boy of eleven years of age joined the company, none other than Robert Henry Davis, but that is another story.
Henry Siebe died in 1887 and William Gorman died in 1904. In 1905 the company was reformed as Siebe Gorman & Co Limited by the Vickers Family.
The factory premises grew to accommodate a machine shop, a fitter’s shop, a blacksmith’s shop, coppersmith’s shop ,diving dress shop, hose shop and a rubber works. As well as diving products Siebe Gorman produced breathing apparatus for the Air Ministry. Much of the factory premises were destroyed during the war and a new purpose built factory was build, which was called Neptune Engineering and Instrument Works. The location, Davis Road, Chessington, Surrey.

The Company went on to develop underwater cameras and underwater television equipment breathing apparatus and submarine equipment. The company became a Public Company in 1952.

In 1955 the standard dress comes to a close and shortly afterwards Siebe Gorman begin to make SCUBA gear for the public market. in 19612 they take over Heinke who are the only other standard Diving equipment maker in the United Kingdom. In 1975 The Company move to Cwmbran.
The Siebe name continued until BTR and Siebe merged to become Invensys in 1999.

Siebe Gorman are best known for their various designs of Diving Helmets of which many different types were made:

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

Customers could buy their helmets off the shelf or have their helmet built with a range of options including different window arrangements, extra windows or alternative window design, extra exhaust valves and inlet valves such as corselet fed and corselet exhausted valves, foreign additions such as the American Banana exhaust valve, telephone equipment, lamp equipment and lashing eye variations. The factory built options were almost limitless. See below for some of these variations.

 

   

The company was in business for over 150 years and during this time there were many changes, including factory moves, equipment pioneering and development and of course the members of the Siebe Gorman management. Here is a brief introduction to some of the more prominent members.