Joseph-Martin Cabirol

Joseph-Martin Cabirol was a French man who patented a new model of standard diving dress in Paris in 1855, based on Augustus Siebe's designs, and afterwards he made them. The suit is made out of rubberized canvas. The helmet, for the first time, includes a hand-controlled exhust valve that the diver uses to evacuate his exhaled air. The valve included a non-return valve which stops water from entering the helmet. Until 1855 diving helmets were equipped with only three circular windows (front, left and right sides). Cabirol's helmet introduced the fourth window, in the upper front part of the helmet, which gives the diver an upward view. Having been presented to the Exposition Universelle in Paris Cabirol's diving dress won the silver medal. This original diving dress and helmet are now preserved at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in Paris.[1]

His gravestone has a carving of a goat on it, as 'cabirol' is Occitanian for "goat".