Chorizo in a water tank

1985/12/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Patenteak/Asmakizunak

Visitors to the Japanese Tsukuba Exp-85 were able to see, among other surprising things, a bird that survived in a box submerged in a water tank. See image. How is it possible not to finish the oxygen in the box? They asked themselves about themselves.

The answer is logically in a newborn technological progress. The box was connected to artificial gills. In these gills the carbon oxide (IV) produced by the respiration of the bird dissolves in the water and the gills absorbed the oxygen of the water renewing the oxygen of the box.

Each sickle has a diameter of 0.3 m and is made with a new silicone rubber. This rubber is highly permeable to gases, especially to CO2.

Logically, this system would revolutionize immersion. However, it has some fundamental drawbacks that put in doubt its close use. On the one hand, in order to get the oxygen a person needs an area of 40 m2, that is, 20,000 threads. On the other hand, this silicone rubber is quite watery and fragile.