I Live Underwater: The Thrilling Adventures of a Record-Breaking Diver, Treasure Hunter, and Deep-Sea Explorer

"Max Gene Nohl's unpublished memoir describes his adventures during the early days of America's scuba diving industry. Nohl was born in Milwaukee in 1913, the son of Milwaukee lawyers and brother to folk artist Mary Nohl. He wrote this autobiography/memoir over the last few years of his life; it was left unpublished after his tragic death in a car accident. Chapters cover very early childhood experiences (paint can diving!) through university days at MIT, where he constructed a bathysphere and invented a self-contained diving suit used to conduct expeditionary work in the Caribbean. The text moves through Nohl's experiments conducted in pressure chambers in Milwaukee to developing diving timetables and studying diving physiology with Marquette researcher Dr. Edgar End, leading to his world record dive to 420 ft in Lake Michigan on Dec. 1, 1937. Additionally, the chapters include stories from the early film industry, the early Florida tourism industry, and businesses Nohl started to invent and market diving equipment (DESCO and American Diving Equip. Co. both based in Milwaukee)"--