Customer Reviews

The Bends: Compressed Air in the History of Science, Diving, and Engineering

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Surprisingly, this is not a book about SCUBA diving or diving accidents, and not what I expected when I bought it. It turned out to be a kind of detective story, where the mystery spans hundreds of years, beginning in later medieval Europe and ends in the present.

The author thoughtfully and carefully traces the the first recognition of the dangers to human life of working in a high-pressure atmosphere. This danger turns out to be mostly at the bottom of rivers. The early book is surprisingly about bridge building, not pearl diving or underwater naval warfare. The history of the bends and the Brooklyn Bridge is especially compelling.

The bends are not what TV and the movies portray. The disease is crippling and horrible. The Brooklyn Bridge's designer John Roebling and his son Washington, who supervised the construction of the bridge, paid a terrible price for their brain child. I had no concept of the debt we owe the many anonymous laborers and engineers that went below the nation's rivers to lay foundations for the more glamorous stonework and steelwork above.

A very readable and understandable history of the use of compressed air in industry and medicine. Written for the layman with enough science to intrigue the intellectually curious. One of the few books of science history that is hard to put down.

This small book is a superb combination of an excellent history and very good science. The thread between one discovery/ observation and how it connects to the next is masterfully done. I highly recommend this book.

This is without doubt the best book I've ever read. Phillips meticulously and brilliantly discusses decompression sickness and the like. A must read!!!