Quite a few months ago, I started a thread over on the Mythbusters forum at the Discovery Channel site. I quit checking on it a while ago, but tonight, I flipped over to Discovery, and there they were, testing it! The basic question posed, whether or not a diver in an old fashioned rig could get stuffed up into the diving bell helmet at depth. I’m laughing so hard right now I’m not sure I’ll be able to stop.

They made a “Meat-Man”, put him in an old timey dive suit and helmet, took him down to 300 feet, and cut the air supply. I won’t give the results, but it’s certainly worth watching.