Manages to combine humour, adventure, tragedy, triumph, heroism, and even some forays into the risque while chronicling the careers of 20 personalities that helped make diving. This book presents the personal lives of this diving's heroes. It is illustrated with photographs that capture each interviewee throughout their diving careers.

This is the saga of diving in America, told by the men and women who lived it and made it. These stories and more recall scuba's pioneer days of the 40s and 50s where every dive was an adventure.

"Ever since the creation of the first Fifty Fathoms watch, Blancpain has been identified with the sea. To share its passion for diving, exploration and preservation of the world's oceans, Blancpain has collaborated with leading divers and underwater photographers to produce a collection of stunning books filled with breathtaking images which are now available for purchase. Edition Fifty Fathoms has been methodically designed to pay tribute to the first modern diving watch, the iconic Fifty Fathoms. Each book consists of 50 double-page spreads, each measuring one fathom around its perimeter when open, hence a total of 50 fathoms. It comprises a selection of 50 underwater photographs. The number 12 also has its own significance in the conception of the publication. It is the magic number in watchmaking, as a watch depicts 12 hours on its dial. In addition, 12 is the number of letters in the name Fifty Fathoms. The collection of Edition Fifty Fathoms books will be complete in 2020, 12 years after its launch."--Publisher's website

In this masterful account in the spirit of Bill Bryson and Ian Frazier, a longtime deep-sea diver masterfully weaves together the science and history of Earth's last remaining frontier: the sea. In an age of unprecedented exploration and innovation, our oceans remain largely unknown, and endlessly fascinating: full of mystery, danger, beauty, and inspiration. In Oceans Deep celebrates the daring pioneers who tested the limits of what the human body can endure under water: free divers able to reach 300 feet on a single breath; engineers and scientists who uncovered the secrets of decompression; teenagers who built their own diving gear from discarded boilers and garden hoses in the 1930s; saturation divers who lived under water for weeks at a time in the 1960s; and the trailblazing men who voluntarily breathed experimental gases at pressures sufficient to trigger insanity. Tracing both the little-known history and exciting future of how we travel and study the depths, Streever's captivating journey includes seventeenth-century leather-hulled submarines, their nuclear-powered descendants, a workshop where luxury submersibles are built for billionaire clients, and robots capable of roving unsupervised between continents, revolutionizing access to the ocean. In this far-flung trip to the wild, night-dark place of shipwrecks, trapped submariners, oil wells, innovative technologies, and people willing to risk their lives while challenging the deep, we discover all the adventures our seas have to offer -- and why they are in such dire need of conservation.

Deep Into Deco, Revised Edition has been fully updated to reflect the latest research outcomes. - Chapter summaries have been added to give a quick overview of each chapter. - A new section on nitrogen and helium kinetics has been added. - Av second appendix was added for calculating the acceleration in post-diving no-fly time associated with breathing surface oxygen. What makes this book truly stunning is that it is not only straightforward, easy-to-read and understand and free from technical jargon, but it also portrays the latest developments and controversial issues in technical diving. From the early history of experimental trial and error to the latest innovations and changes in the decompression arena, Deep Into Deco, Revised Edition brings the science into sharp focus. Throughout the book are demonstrations of how deco schedules are calculated in commercial software packages, without elaborating on mathematical equations or source code. Also, a grab-bag of additional points of interest that contribute to our current understanding of decompression theory is explored in detail. This book is a must read for any diver looking at understanding decompression theory, how it evolved, what it accomplished and where the latest research is heading.

Deep Into Deco is a comprehensive and well-written reference text covering various topics of decompression theory. It is straightforward, easy to read, and free from technical jargon while portraying the latest developments and controversial issues in technical diving. A must read for any diver seeking to understand decompression theory.

This text provides a comprehensive treatment of virtual world design from one of its pioneers. It covers everything from MUDs to MOOs to MMORPGs, from text-based to graphical VWs.

"Neutral Buoyancy is a journey filled with exotic, eccentric human characters competing for space with misunderstood sharks, weeping turtles, smiling dolphins and erotically shaped sea slugs. This unique and inspiring insight into our relationship with the deep will allow even the most timid swimmer to lose themselves underwater."--Jacket.

Fifty years ago, in November 1947, Brown & Root helped Kerr-McGee build the first out-of-sight-land offshore platform that produced oil. The date is widely celebrated as the birth of the modern offshore industry. In the years since this historic occasion, Brown & Root has continued to pioneer in the design and construction of offshore pipelines and platforms. Along with the rest of the offshore industry, the company has helped develop technology capable of finding and producing oil in deepwater and in harsh environments around the world.This history puts a human face on the process of technological change. Using the words of many of those who took part in Brown & Root's offshore activities, this book recounts their efforts to find practical ways to recover offshore oil. Building on lessons learned in the Gulf of Mexico before and after World War II, the company's personnel adapted offshore technologies to conditions encountered in Venezuela, the Middle East, Alaska, and other regions before becoming one of the first engineering and construction companies to confront the challenge of North Sea development in the 1960's.Through times of boom and bust in the oil industry, the search for effective technology had continued. The process has not always been smooth, but the results have been impressive. As we enter a new and exciting era in offshore technology, the history of the first fifty years of the industry provides a useful context for understanding current and future events.

How British Columbia became an international hotspot for submarines, submersibles, Newtsuits, underwater robotics, Arctic sonar and a host of other cutting-edge undersea technologies. In Deep, Dark & Dangerous, maritime historian Vickie Jensen explores the fascinating story of British Columbia's rise to become a world leader in the underwater tech industry. She profiles both trailblazing innovators and newcomers to the field, and traces BC's colourful history and bright future as a front runner in the world of subsea technology innovation. This little-known saga began in the early 1960s. Two commercial hard-hat divers from the Vancouver area, Don Sorte and Al Trice, realized that they needed a small manned submersible with robot arms for deep-sea work. They couldn't find one to buy, so they decided to partner with machinist Mack Thomson and build their own. Experts told them it would be suicidal to try a home-made version, but just over two years and $100,000 later, their Pisces I was successfully making two-thousand-foot dives. They formed International Hydrodynamics, which went on to build fourteen submersibles and produce a generation of experts that would launch an entire industry of subsea companies in BC. During the same period, Phil Nuytten went from opening Vancouver's first scuba shop as a teenager to becoming a commercial diver and starting his undersea construction company at age twenty-five. Now, Nuytten is best known for his atmospheric diving suits, Newtsuit and Exosuit, along with a series of submersibles for scientific research. Drawing on her background in documenting both history and industry, Jensen uncovers the stories of over forty subsea pioneers, both historical and current, and details the innovations that are responsible for BC's remarkable and continuing subsea reputation. Written with colour and flair, this is a fascinating and exciting story that anyone can enjoy.