Curiosity about the world beneath the water's surface has compelled humans to experiment with diving gear for centuries. The history of diving gear begins with surface-supplied air devices before the emergence of scuba gear. The acronym "scuba" stands for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. Modern scuba gear allows recreational divers to breathe compressed air at depths for an hour or more.
Surface Air Supply
In the 16th century, early divers experimented with bells that supplied divers with air from the surface. The first diving bell was invented in 1530, according to MarineBio.org. In 1650, Otto von Guericke made the first functional air pump, which Robert Boyle then used to study the effects of compression and decompression on animals. English and French divers began to dive to depths of 60 feet, wearing full leather suits and breathing air pumped from the surface with manual pumps. In the 1820s, Charles Anthony Deane and his brother John Deane developed a metal helmet with surface-supplied air, according to MarineBio.org. Divers wearing this contraption had to remain upright. In 1837, Augustus Siebe improved the Deane brothers' design by sealing the helmet to a watertight rubber suit similar to the modern dry suit. Divers continued to use surface-supplied helmets and suits during salvage work throughout the 1930s. Salvage workers using this system developed the first recorded cases of decompression sickness. In 1917, the U.S. Bureau of Construction and Repair developed the Mark V Diving Helmet, a surface-supplied helmet attached to a full diving suit. The U.S. Navy used this apparatus for most salvage work during World War II.
First Self-Contained Devices
William James invented the first workable, self-contained underwater breathing apparatus in 1825, according to MarineBio.org. James' cylindrical tank could hold air at pressures of up to 450 psi. In 1865, Benoit Rouquayrol and Auguste Denayrouse developed a mouthpiece that could receive air from a steel tank through a valve. The tank could carry air at pressures of between 250 and 350 psi. Because the tank could not hold a large supply of air, divers still had to receive air from the surface through an umbilical cord for most of the dive.
Birth of Modern Scuba Gear
In 1933, Yves Le Prieur improved on Rouquayrol and Denayrouse's tank and mouthpiece apparatus. He developed a tank that could hold air at pressures of up to 1,500 psi, allowing divers to remain underwater longer without connecting to hoses and surface air supplies. Prieur's apparatus had no regulator. Instead, divers had to open a tap to breathe from the tank. In 1942, Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Emile Gagnan developed a regulator that could supply air to a diver only when he inhaled. This regulator connected to a compressed air tank through hoses and demand valves. This device became known as the Aqua Lung. Cousteau's friend Frederic Dumas dove to 210 feet with the Aqua Lung in 1943, and to 307 feet in 1947.
Further Advancements
In the 1960s, scuba divers began using submersible pressure gauges to monitor the air in their tanks throughout dives. Divers also began using buoyancy compensator devices to better control their buoyancy underwater. In 1983, the Orca Edge became the first commercially available dive computer.
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