In the forth decade IA Infrastructure has hundreds of experimental projects in the works at any given time, designed by the Central Committee and put together by human Engineers, their work crews and specialist machine shops. Some of these are for high profile items such as new locomotives, building methods, warships and weapons. Others involve new manufacturing equipment, who's implementation can mean profound changes in the years to come as it allows for the production of new items and the easy mass production of others. Either way, these projects have more direct involvement by the Central Committee. The Diving Suit project is on the opposite side of that scale.







The Central Committee could see the potential utility in a system which could allow workers to operate underwater for a variety of purposes. The first experiments were done in 24 IA involving a number of captured Borogskovi and Daagsgradian slavers fitted with simple leather and glass helmets fed by air pumps in lakes. While these systems worked and were be refined on, their actual utility was limited especially in the cold waters of the Icemountain Sea. The project continued onward from there, being handled by several Engineers who'd serve for a brief time before being re-assigned to some more prestigious project, a few technicians, artisans, seamstresses and clerks and a selection of voluntary and involuntary test subjects. In truth the Diving Suit Project became something of a Joke among the Nautical Engineering department. Never the less progress was made, if slowly through trial and error and the occasional blueprint update from the Central Committee based on reported data. There were two things which aided progress considerably: information gained with the SV Program and secondly the discovery of Latex in the Southwestern Continent. Several Dwarven clans have developed Diving Suits for work in underground lakes and rivers as well as the open ocean. Many of which are of a superior make. These however often use well guarded alchemical and magical processes in treating leather and canvas and are not suitable for replication by the more mundane industrial base of Infrastructure.





This is the Model-4 Diving Suit, first put into production in late 36 IA. It is broadly similar to the Model-3 Diving Suit in many respects. The waste gas disposal system, weights and most of the helmet is the same. It's most major distinction is A, the use of rubberized canvas and vulcanized rubber gloves for waterproofing and B the addition of an electric light mounted on the top of the helmet. The former made the suit more comfortable and safe to wear and allowing more work to be done. The second meant that darkness was less of an issue. The system is still dependent on a surface vessel to pump down air. Even so the modification has been well received by Infrastructure's small, but growing cadre of qualified divers.









