Besides his diving suit Phillips constructed a submarine that was hand-driven by means of a crankshaft.

Another submarine was tested to a depth of 33 meter.

He sold the submarine. The new owner however, was found drowned in his submarine in the company of his dog.

Phillips had offered his inventions to the Royal Navy.

However, they twice turned down his offer.

This made Phillips decide to stop the construction and designing of submarines.

There is no certainty as to whether the second submarine that he designed has ever been built and if it could indeed stay under water for 20 hours.

Apart from diving related inventions Philips also designed other products. For example he designed a hose coupling (US. Pat. 16450) and a trowel ( US. Pat 16021).  However, these are less important to me.

Lodner Phillips designed an atmospheric diving suit where we see the ball and socket joint applied for the first time.

This makes the design unique and very modern for it’s time.

In various descriptions you will find many elements of his diving suit, although many descriptions are incomplete or not very precise.

Phillips’ atmospheric diving suit is partly made of steal and partly made of cast iron.

On top of the suit there is a bolted lid that is to be closed with a leather or india rubber gasket.

The joints were enveloped by a rubber ring secured above and below the joints by hoops.

These hoops had their ends flanged and were drawn tight with a screw bolt in the usual manner.

At the back of the suit a concentric formed cylinder is installed. This cylinder is made from boiler steel.

This cylinder can contain highly compressed air.

This compressed air cylinder is in many descriptions unjustly referred to as trim vessel.

The suit has a double hose that has a pressure resistant shell.

At the surface a pressure pump was used to transport air to the suit.

The return hose was also used to send sound signals to the surface, one could shout from the suit to the surface.

At the front of the suit there are two plano-convex lenses.

The upper lens is serving as a window for the suit-operator/diver????

The lower lens has a gas light behind it.

This gas light uses oxygen that comes from the back placed cylinder/vessel.

The suit is equipped with joints on the hips, knees, shoulders and elbows.

The shoulder joints move in horizontal direction and the elbow joints in vertical direction.

At the front of the suit is a propeller for the purpose of impulsion.

The suit was hand-driven. In case the propeller got stuck, the operator could unlock it via a hollow axis in the inside of the suit und thus disconnect the propeller from the suit.

At the top of the suit there is a depressurizing valve.

At the left-hand and right-hand side there are two lifting eyes in order to manoeuvre the suit with a rope or a chain.

At the top a central eye has been placed which can be used to lower the suit in the water.

In it’s inner circle this eye has a construction that allows the diver to disconnect it from the suit in case of an emergency.

Inside the suit a small metal inhalation tube is present. This enables the operator to breath when at surface.

The tube has to be pushed outside for this purpose.

The operator is hanging in a leather jacket inside the suit and is strapped in so that he can develop strength in his movements.

The arms have grippers that can contain various tools.

This tools are being operated from the inside out by operating handles.

The operator takes up his position in the suit and is being sunk down to a certain depth.

If he wishes he can let in additional air from the supply that is present in the cylinder on his back.

Should he so desire he can ascend independently. He can inflate a balloon that is on top of his suit via the cylinder at his back, thus enlarging his lifting ability and his ability to ascend autonomously.

If this suit was ever made or  it  was ever used remains unclear to date.

The way this suit was designed would make it hardly possible for the joints to move under high pressure.

Remarkable for it’s time is the use of joints and the great attention for the safety of the diver.

Since it is suspected that diving suits could not reach depths much deeper than 30-40 meter the construction with the bail out balloon seems plausible.

Finally Phillips is an inventor who had much knowledge of buoyancy systems since he designed various submarines that were factually built.

Literature:

There is a fantastic book written by Patricia A. Gruse Harris called “Great Lakes First Submarine” L.D. Phillips, “Fool Killer” copyright 1982, library of congress Number 82-073727

U.S. Patent: 9389; Submarine

U.S. Patent 15898 Atmospheric diving suit

U.S. Patent 16021 Trowel

U.S. Patent 16450 Hose coupling

U.S. Patent 60053 Buttons Making machine