Research in the first pressure chamber laboratory at the University of Zurich; saturation dives to 350 meters (Alverstock UK Navy, Capshell)
1964
Eight pressure chamber tests are carried out in Zurich.
1965
Pressure chamber tests No. 12 to 84 (numbering according to Albert Bühlmann’s manual protocol) are carried out in the pressure chamber in Zurich.
1966
Pressure chamber tests No. 85 to 120 are carried out in Zurich.
Shell International and Micoperi build the seagoing pressure chamber «Capshell» weighing 57 tonnes. From 14 September to 24 October, various test experiments with long-term exposures (saturation experiments) using Heliox from 30 to 220 meters are carried out; the «Capshell» is lowered to the operational depth suspended from a crane installed on a converted cargo ship on the coast of Porto San Stefano in Tuscany, where the divers could leave the pressure chamber and simulate diving operations; the medical preparation and on-site management of the experiments was the responsibility of Albert Bühlmann, the technical and organisational responsibility lay with Shell and Micoperi in the person of Cdr. J. Carr.
Results are secured with further saturation dives at 220 and 300 meters in Zurich in 1967.
1969
Pressure chamber test No.159, a saturation test to 300 meters with descents to 350 metres; carried out in the pressure chamber of the Royal Navy Medical Centre in Alverstoke/UK; the test starts on 3 February and ends on 10 February.
The first diving recruit school of the Swiss Army is conducted; as a result of the use of the French GERS tables for sea level during tests in Lake Silvaplana at an altitude of 1815 meters above sea level, two divers suffer severe decompression sickness; Albert Bühlmann is called in; the divers are successfully treated on the basis of Albert Bühlmann’s treatment instructions; subsequently, pressure chamber tests in combination with overpressure and negative pressure are conducted in Zurich; these tests result in the first decompression tables for mountain lake diving.
Experiments No. 160 to 174 are carried out in Zurich.
1973
Pressure chamber experiments No. 237 to 257 are carried out in Zurich.
The Bühlmann disc «slide rule» for calculating decompressions is launched and recommended for use by the Swiss Underwater Sports Association.
