Historical Association “Hyperbaric Chamber Laboratory University Hospital Zurich (DKL-USZ)”
Important News!
Save the Hyperbaric Chamber Laboratory!
Zurich was a center of worldwide decompression research. Dive tables still used today been developed here. The hyperbaric chamber laboratory at the University Hospital Zurich has been shut down, but it still exists.
Still, because in a few years it should be scrapped.
We try to save this unique monument of Swiss science and technology history.
Diving is a safe sport. This is because dive tables and computer models for dive computers have existed for several decades to help prevent diving accidents.
Numerous indispensable experiments were carried out at the Hyperbaric Chamber Laboratory of the University of Zurich to develop and test these mathematical models. It is fair to argue that without the findings of this lab, there would be no dive computers as we use them today.
In addition, dozens of injured divers have been successfully treated in this hyperbaric chamber.
In 1981, the world's deepest dive at 501m was executed here without incident.
The Hyperbaric Chamber Laboratory was completely planned in Switzerland and largely manufactured by Swiss companies.
For cost reasons, the operation of the hyperbaric chamber was completely discontinued in 2005. For the moment being it’s no longer operational.
As part of the extensive reconstruction measures at the University Hospital of Zurich, the laboratory building on Sternwartstrasse, where the hyperbaric chamber laboratory is still located today, will be demolished within a few years. Then the chamber with all its installations must be removed.
If we succeed in providing the necessary resources by then, we can preserve this unique and outstanding monument of the history of technology and science in a museum and make it accessible to the public.
If not, then only a large pile of scrap remains from the successful history of decompression research and hyperbaric chamber technology in Switzerland.
To reach this goal we need members, colleagues, sponsors and partners. We are happy to tell you how you can participate in this project.
