BLUE PLAQUE FOR DIVING PIONEER

Augustus Siebe, manufacturer of the closed diving helmet, honoured

news release from English Heritage, 7 September 2000

Augustus Siebe (1788-1872) the German-born inventor acclaimed as "the father of diving", has been honoured today (7 September 2000) by an English Heritage blue plaque outside 5, Denmark Street, London WC2, his home from 1830 until his death. The plaque was unveiled at 12 noon by Loyd Grossman, Chairman of English Heritage's National Commemorative Plaques Panel and a keen diver.

Siebe's 'closed' diving helmet, first produced in 1840, allowed divers to dive safely to greater depths than ever before. Attached to a rubber suit, it became the 'Standard Dress' that revolutionised diving and made the underwater worker an essential part of both salvage operations and civil engineering. Many of the great building projects of the Victorian era - bridges, tunnels and lighthouses still in use today - could not have been built without divers. Siebe's design was so successful that it remained in use essentially unchanged, by the Royal Navy until 1989.

Born in Saxony in 1788 and trained as a metalworker in Berlin, Siebe served in the Prussian army against Napoleon before emigrating to London in 1816. He moved into 5, Denmark Street, a four-storey house dating from the 1680s, in 1830. Located in St Giles-in-the-Fields, an area which has had a long-standing connection with the metal-working trades, the property served both as his home and his commercial premises.

Siebe manufactured his first 'closed' diving helmet in 1840. Previously, divers had relied on 'open' helmets from which spent air had to escape beneath the rim of the helmet or below the hem of the diver's rubber jacket, increasing the risk of drowning. Siebe's 'closed' helmet was bolted onto a modified diving suit based on the open helmet dress, with divers receiving air from a pump on the surface. The suit was watertight and thus safer than earlier types of diving dress. Together with special pumps designed by Siebe, it made diving to a depth of about 25 metres possible.

Siebe perfected the design of his new diving suit during the salvage operations carried out between 1840 and 1843 on the warship HMS Royal George, sunk in 1782. Following this practical experience of salvage work, his company advertised as 'Submarine Engineers' who could:

"Undertake all classes of Operations under Water, the Inspection of Works in Progress, Cleaning of the Bottoms of Vessels, the Recovery of Sunken Property, the Removal of Wrecks, Boring and Blasting of Rocks and Removal of same, Ship Raising, &c, &c."

Siebe's other inventions include a dial weighing machine, a paper-making machine, and a rotary water pump. In 1850, he manufactured one of the first ever ice-making machines. Siebe won numerous medals at the 1851 Great Exhibition and the 1855 Paris Exhibition, and was elected an Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1856.

Siebe died at 5, Denmark St in 1872. His obituary described him as "retiring, kind of heart and honourable in all his dealings."

NOTES FOR EDITORS

There are over 760 blue plaques in London. The first plaque was put up in 1867 by the Royal Society of Arts. English Heritage had been responsible for blue plaques since 1986. English Heritage will consider suggestions for plaques if the person to be commemorated has been dead for twenty years or was born 100 years ago, whichever is the earlier. They must have a strong reputation and have gained recognition through their life and work.

For further information, please contact Hannah Johnson, English Heritage Public Affairs on 020 7973 3294.