Carl G. Heinzl wrote:

> > I believe the Inspiration holds the notorious records of most deaths
> > on any single type of rebreather.  I don't even remember what the
> > current body count is.

David Strike responded:

> I'm almost certain that it's out of the 'teens and into the twenties.  And
> that it's not higher is, in at least one instance, due to the good buddy
> skills of an open-circuit diver.  I don't know if the new manufacturer has
> now corrected the problem, but it's hard to maintain serious interest in a
> machine in which the electronics invite the user to re-calibrate - at
> 50-metres!!!!  :-)

> (Having said that, one of the local guys has modified his machine, and has
> been doing a lot of diving in the 90-metre range on the 'Niagara' - a
famous
> bullion ship that sank off of New Zealand.)

My access to the manual came as a result of a discussion on UK Rec.Scuba
about the pros and cons of the Inspiration relative to George Irvine's well
known position that the unit is a stone killer.  Unfortunately, he has
little more to say on the subject.  What I failed to understand is how it
can be that the same Inspiration seems to be the only one approved by CS, (?
seems to have significance in the UK) and apparently be in common use
without an comparable levels of fatal or potentially fatal problems being
reported.

Strike has at least some experience with rebreathers as others may.  I have
none.  I haven't even finished reading the manual yet.  If Strike or others
would care to share their knowledge and/or opinions on this, I, for one,
would be interested in hearing it.

Lee