Scuba Diving History

longer reeds didn’t compensate for the water pressure when diving deeper, so shallow swimming was about the extent of a diver’s capabilities.

Observable scuba diving history actually emerged around 1535—before William Shakespeare’s time—when Guglielmo de Loreno invented the diving bell, which remained above the surface and contained air that allowed divers to remain underwater for a few minutes before returning to the surface for another breath of air. Over a hundred years later, in 1650, the first air pump was devise that would systematically churn air bursts to the diver from the surface. This concept for underwater breathing would take hold and be the standard for the following few hundred years.

It wasn’t until 1826 that the steel helmet evolved. Charles Anthony and John Deane, who modified a firefighter’s helmet, patented the first underwater helmet that strapped securely to the body to protect the head while underwater. Air was pumped into the helmet from the surface to maintain constant respiration. Augustus Siebe, however, went one step further. In 1837, he appended the helmet to the then standard leather suit to ensure that no water seeped into the helmet. This served as a mark on the history of scuba diving with specifically designed equipment intended for diving

Scuba diving became recognized as respectable skill with the very first diving school set up by the Royal Navy in 1843. This development made diving both academic and professionally oriented, as some extended underwater operations began being practiced, although the first military incursion ever performed by a submarine had occurred 67 years prior. Systematic training reflected what would become long-period free-swimming underwater activity and at gradually greater depths. This objective was sealed in 1865 with the first underwater breathing apparatus that was connected to a steel tank strapped to the diver’s back and pumped compressed air through valves and a mouthpiece into the diver’s mouth—the inspiration for the Mark V helmet in 1917; the regulator and Aqualung, which would be invented by the famed Jacques-Yves Cousteau in 1942-3; and the Demand Valve with a high-pressure air cylinder that would make the surface pump obsolete and allow under water breathing an independent function.

In all of history, scuba diving gained momentum in the twentieth century, which brought the development of swim fins; the first dive computer—the Orca Edge—in 1983; several more international scuba diving schools, including NAUI (1960), PADI (1966), and Scuba Schools International (1970); and a host of professional organizations that collectively represent all divers and instructors.

History on scuba diving is long and rich, from the simple reed to the intricately constructed respiration system, from the underwater cylinder of 1715 to larger motor-propelled submarines and submersibles. As ancient as the underwater world is, human civilizations are determined to learn as much about it that they can.