Scuba diving may seem to have a long history and it does from one perspective. As far as modern styles of diving go, however, World War II was the impetus to what we now know as scuba diving.
There is evidence that man has been diving into the water, most often to seek food, for as long as there is recorded history. Most likely, his underwater quest began even further back in time. However, the history of scuba diving actually should date from the time that man first began to use some sort of artificial means of supplying air to the diver. The very first true diving bell was built in 1535 by Guglielmo de Loreno. It used the simple principle of trapped air inside the bell itself. There was no way to replenish the air supply so diving time was limited.
It the meantime air pumps were being perfected and before long the two were combined to make the first diving bell where air could be replenished by air pumped through pipes. Edmund Halley perfected this type of device in 1691. These early diving methods were used for the exploration of wrecks and salvage operations. Underwater advances continued in the next couple of hundred years. These included the first submarines.
Starting in the later part of the 18th century, various types of sealed helmets were developed and later attached to full diving suits. These suits could be supplied with compressed air via pipes from air pumps on the surface. By 1843, the British Royal Navy had established a diving school. The next stage of the history of this underwater adventure was the use of tanks of compressed air that were actually carried by the diver to provide air replenishment during the dive.
As far back as 1667, Robert Boyle had made the first observation of the effects of decompression when he observed a gas bubble in the eye of a snake that had been compressed and decompressed rapidly. Over the years, more research was done on what has become known as the “bends†or decompression sickness. This has been a limiting factor in the depth to which a diver could ascend unless he was able to return to the surface very slowly avoiding the rapid decompression.
During World War II, Italian divers using masks, fins, and self contained breathing devices planted explosive devices on British ships. The modern age of scuba diving was born in the maelstrom of war. During this same period, Emile Gagnan and Jacques-Yves Cousteau, who was a French Naval officer, developed the first true Aqualung. This device allowed compressed air to be breathed in at a controlled rate and exhaled into the water. The Aqualung is still the basic gear of the scuba diver of today.
Aazdak Alisimo writes about scuba diving for ScubaDivingCompanies.com.
The Development of Scuba Diving Over Time
