Edgar Matthew End was born 15 October 1910. He graduated from Marquette University
School of Medicine in 1936. In 1937, End was a medical intern at Milwaukee County
General Hospital. He tested his theory that adding helium to the oxygen, replacing
nitrogen, would alleviate the problem of narcosis. Testing the mixture on himself in
the basement of the County Emergency Hospital in a recompression chamber, End found
that his decompression tables worked. End then recruited diver and engineer, Max
Nohl, for further testing.
Preliminary tests were successful and End and Nohl then set out to break a world
diving record. After a practice dive in April of 1937, Nohl set a world record dive
of 420 feet on 1 December 1937 in Lake Michigan about 25 miles northeast of
Milwaukee and 12 miles east of Port Washington, Wisconsin. These achievements in
SCUBA technology predate innovations from Jacques Cousteau and prompted End to
continue work in hyperbaric medicine. Dr. Edgar End died in May 1981.
