Condensation in top of David Blaine's Tank.

[bottomdweller]

I watched David Blaine's performance last night.

And I was wondering why there was so much condensation in the top of the tank, while his head was above water, while he was preparing up to the time he held his breath and went underwater.

I was also wondering, why it appeared there was a top cover to the tank that was put on. A couple ad breaks before Blaine started the breath hold, after the water level had come down in the tank, I think I saw the clear top pieces afixed at some point(but am not sure). I am pretty sure I heard them mention to put it down though. Also, a number of seconds before Blaine was rescued, I thought I heard someone say to remove the top cover.

1)Did anyone else notice this issue with the top cover being placed and why it was placed at all?

2)So what I wonder is, why would anyone want a top cover placed on an airspace where they are trying to get as much fresh air into there lungs as possible?


3)Does anyone have an explaination to the possible environment of the open space above the water, based on the large condensation that happened on the sides of the bubble?

4)Does pure Oxygen float or sink relative to regular air in a stagnant space?

5)Do gases that come out of a compressed tank, cool as they come out?

Finally, I wonder these things:
6)did the water temperature cool
7)did the temperature in the space just above the water cool because some foreign gas that just expanded was present
8) did the air temperature outside the bubble , cool the clear portion of the bubble above water enough that a capped space with just the regular air present and all the breathing, would cause the condesation.

Thanks.
And it is a really interesting site you all have here, and I have ultimate respect for what some of you are involved in.

 

[trux]

The purpose of your questions is clear, but the answers are unimportant. It is relatively insignificant whether Blaine breathed pure oxygen the 4 minutes on surface before the attempt. The condensation came likely from the warm water cooling on the sphere. Why they closed the latch afterwords is incomprehensible though.

However, Blaine did breath oxygen anyway before the brief surface breath-up - that is clear for sure. It was reported on CNN that he had an oxygen mask during his 7 days UW stay - although I am sure the words come from a stupid reporter who knows no difference between air regulator and oxygen mask, is is technically and physically simply impossible for Blaine to surface after 7 days in up to 2.4m depth without nitrogen desaturation. Hence, it is sure he breathed O2 and both his tissue and his lungs were saturated with it.

When you watch the 14:15 O2 apnea Guinness record of Tom Sietas in Italy (he did another 15+ attempt later in France) on his website, you can see that he also did not make the breath up from a regulator, but rather stayed several minutes on the surface breathing the air of the environment, just like Blaine did.

 

[Adrian]

I read somewhere that the outside temperature had gone down to around 50 degrees. The temperature difference with the water at around 98 F probably caused the condensation.

 

[bottomdweller]

But trux,
I guess I don't understand why it wouldn't matter what the % oxgygen he last gulp of gas contained before holding your breath. If you take the logic to the extreme, could a persons who had tissue very saturated with oxygen, not need to take any breath at all before going underwater, and hold it just as long as if they had taken a breath of regular air? As a lay person, I would think it would help to have the last breath contain as much oxygen as possible, so I don't understand, and would really appreciate it if you could explain it to me. Thanks.

 

[trux]

I have no idea why Tom Sietas did not breath oxygen from a regulator just before his 14 minutes record. I did not see the 15 minutes record, so do not know if he did it in the same way. The only reason I can imagine, is that having lungs full of pure oxygene could be dangerous during the long apnea - maybe it could cause premature blackout, or O2 poisoning (though I doubt it). Hope some physilogists (maybe Eric Fattah?), or maybe Tom himself will jump in and explain it better.

Or maybe it is in the Guinness rules. I really do not know, but if it worked fine with Sietas, then there is no reason why it would not work with Blaine.

 

[Hypersquid1]

sorry to go off topic, but what is the current record that Blaine is trying to beat?

 

[yugyug]

wasn't there was an Italian or Spanish freediver ( a well known one, I;'m sure someone here knows) who did a breathold with the last breath on pure oxygen - he went past 20 minutes with few or no contractions and could have keep going but became worried about side effects and surfaced. I hope I didn't get that wrong, I read it here on deeperblue, but sorry can't remember the guys's name.

Don't know about Tom, but I'm sure Blaine wanted to look like there was no trickery involved and made to look like he was breathing fresh air, but it was pointed out in the other thread his regulator which was very likely pumping high levels of 02 was sitting on the surface of the water while he did so , filling up the confined space at the top of the bubble with 02. If there was a clear barely visible lid on the tank, all the better.

 

[efattah]

I think it was likely that the air above the water was in some way supersatured with oxygen, to what level we may never know.

However, I think it is a bit besides the point. The guy was in agony from 8 days in the sphere, his hands and feet in pain, muscles feeling pins and needles/pains, skin falling off, he hadn't had food for 14 days (except gatorade), and he had over a million people watching. Those are hard conditions, with or without O2. Not to mention opening the locks without being able to see anything; not to mention doing static with no nose clip (which makes contractions horrible because you get water in your nose)...

 

[SanSan]

Tom did 21min on his training dive and still was not near the limit.

Eric Tom is doing all his statics without a noseclip as does Sam Still and that are two best static freedivers. I tried it out also and my time has not decreased and the feeling wasnt that horrible either.

I also think that staying 7 days under did not efect Blaines static performance that much. As you already mentioned the fasting should be a good thing as long as you rest. Well David wasnt moving around alot and he was weightless. Now the other point is water has put quite some stress on his body but still I think his metabolism has slowed down significantly.

 

[wolleneugebauer]

wasn't there was an Italian or Spanish freediver ( a well known one, I;'m sure someone here knows) who did a breathold with the last breath on pure oxygen - he went past 20 minutes with few or no contractions and could have keep going but became worried about side effects and surfaced. I hope I didn't get that wrong, I read it here on deeperblue, but sorry can't remember the guys's name.

nobody did a official oxygen breathold near 20minutes...
the world record holder is tom sietas (14'12", 060105) and he will break his own record in spain (6th june, guiness-attempt at tv-channel "antena3" spain).

(source: http://tomsietas.de/events/events.html)

 

[jome]

I've dabbled with "no noseclip" statics as well. I quite like it, but I get some kind of allergic reaction which causes my nose to spew slime for the following 48 hours, so I don't do it much. It's a shame, because I believe that the less you depend on any equipment, the better. I'd like to get rid of the suit as well...Maybe it's how you "handle" contractions, I never had very much water go in my nose, even though I have pretty strong ones. But I let the contractions sort of go to my mouth to "mellow" it, maybe if I didn't, I'd suck in water through my nose.

In the first 02 static of Tom it almost seems like he is gulping water in on purpose, kind of looks like a fish breathing. I can only guess why he would do that...Stronger dive reflex? Or then it just looks that way and had nothing to do with anything.

But some guys in our pool seem to be just fine.

I agree that whether or not Blaine used oxygen is irrelevant. It was a stunt, and an impressive one, but it had nothing to do with the world record of "static apnea" as a competitive sport. I would be very interested to see David in "real" static conditions. He obviously has the potential to be world record level...Anyway, quite a stirr he created for us. I don't remember when there were 3-4 simultaneus threads going on db about the same subject and with the number of posts passing well over 500...

 

[Haydn]

If David breathed O2 wouldnt he have done better than 7 minutes. Assuming anybody can hold 3 or 4 minutes on air with basic training, what effect would O2 give. Maybe a 50% increase. Therefore if David was doing 7 min statics on air in training surely after O2 he would have done over 9.

 

[Jorg]

19 minutes oxygen breathhold by Umberto Pelizzari:

In terms of breath-holding, that is trifling to a man who has gone for more than seven minutes without inhaling, and survived for more than 19 minutes on one puff of oxygen. (Why not the round 20? "I only started breathing again because I looked at my watch and was afraid it had stopped!").
Umberto does things humans should not be able to do. He thinks holding his breath for ninety minutes is feasible on pure oxygen. "There are a lot of things medicine is still not able to explain."

Read the whole article here: http://www.divernet.com/compet/peli197.htm
Keep in mind that this article is from january 1999!

 

[yugyug]

thanks Jorg that was the guy I was thinking of (although I got most of the details wrong !)

 

[bottomdweller]

If David breathed O2 wouldnt he have done better than 7 minutes. Assuming anybody can hold 3 or 4 minutes on air with basic training, what effect would O2 give. Maybe a 50% increase. Therefore if David was doing 7 min statics on air in training surely after O2 he would have done over 9.

Where did the 2 hour special TV program indicate he had done 7 minutes static on air in the training prior to the main event?

If someone was able to do 6 on air, then one might contemplate that 9 with some exertion would be possible with oxyginated body from being at depth plus somewhat oxygenated last breath.

Can someone hold their breath longer in cooled water? Is that a different issue than someone falling through ice in winter? Does it help to try to set records in cooler water?

 

[Erik]

Pellizari apparently did almost 20 minutes in a supervised experiment, but stopped because he was getting scared. Not an 'offical' record, whatever the hell that means, but happened nevertheless.
US Navy also had a guy do 18 minutes.
Peace,
Erik Y.

 

[Erik]

Beaten to the finish by Yorg!
Peace,
Erik Y.

 

[fishon]

but stopped because he was getting scared.

What a sissy

 

[turtle]

i think that Herbert N has done some fairly crazy things with oxygen as well, although probably up to him to tell... Eric, why the turnaround of opinion on Blaine's stunt? I seem to remember you being quite strongly of the opinion that it was an 'honest' attempt. Maybe i missed something.

fred