Decompression Panel

"It is desired to draw the attention of the Underwater Physiological Sub-Committee of the RNPRC to the necessity for renewed consideration of the general problem of Decompression Tables for divers. While this problem has been given considerable attention by the Superintendent of Diving and at the RNPL at Alverstoke in recent months, there has been no co-ordinated experimental work on any scale since the Admiralty Deep Diving Committee's Report of October, 1933. It is strongly felt that the time has come for a new approach to the problem as a whole." Commander W O Shelford, Superintendent of Diving, HMS Vernon, 6 February, 1948 ("Decompression," D/2/9/1). A Decompression Panel, of which Paton was a member, was set-up to address the problem, perceived as the need to reduce decompression times: "In the past, efforts have been directed solely towards the drawing up of tables to avoid decompression illness at all costs. Some of the tables thus produced involve some very long stoppages which are difficult to work under practical diving conditions." (Ibid., Shelford)

1948-1955

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