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Robert Davis (inventor)
English inventor and manufacturer of underwater breathing apparatus / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sir Robert Henry Davis (1870 – 1965) was an English inventor and director of the Siebe Gorman company.[1] His main invention was the Davis Submerged Escape Apparatus, an oxygen rebreather that Davis patented for the first time in 1910,[2] inspired by the rebreathers that Henry Fleuss patented as of 1876. Davis breathing set was destined to allow British submarine crews to escape when their ship started to sink.
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While still directing Siebe Gorman Davis was the first British to buy a licence from the Cousteau-Gagnan Aqua-Lung[3] (from the French company La Spirotechnique), starting commercialization of scuba sets in Britain as of 1948. Siebe Gorman aqualungs ended being known under the name of tadpole sets.[4]
Davis Road in Chessington (where Siebe Gorman's factory was for a while) was named after him.