Gordon Smith (inventor)

Gordon Smith spent fourteen years at Comptec and moved from the position of Mold Maker to become manager of the Tooling, Engineering, and R&D departments.

For example, few charters at the time had the ability or the experience to accommodate rebreather divers (often relying upon live boats following bubble streams and with a business model based upon dives lasting under one hour).

However, because Gordon's initial aim was simply restricted to diving on his own boat with individuals of his choosing he was able to proceed with developing these experimental devices without the burden and limitations of (self) regulatory considerations.

One of his innovations early on was the bailout-integrated mouthpiece, switching immediately to diluent for short term open-circuit operation in an emergency or even just upon entering the water.

Specifically, design philosophy was that the knowledge that the diver was the one and only thing controlling the loop oxygen level meant that attention was required and would be applied.

This avoided the human tendency to eventually neglect to monitor the machine-controlled process outputs, which work seamlessly until there is a failure or mistake (whether software bug, miscalibration or other issue) and then cause an accident.

In practice, the constant mass flow of oxygen meant that partial pressures changed so slowly that this form of manual control was actually very feasible and only required checking every few minutes (more often during exercise and when close to the surface perhaps).

He continued to innovate, including at one time experimenting with a "hands-free" tongue-based oxygen injection system he wryly called the "snog valve".