Modern Scuba Diving Equipment
The first effective piece of equipment that allowed men to stay under the water for any length of time was the diving bell.
Diving Suit
Early models were open bottomed and suspended a few feet below the surface. The upper part would contain air, compressed by the water pressure, and the diver would be able to make forays to the bottom and return to the bell for as long as the air remained breathable.
This method served for over one hundred years until the end of the seventeenth century when the innovative Edward Hally (of comet fame) patented a diving bell that was connected by pipe to weighted barrels of air that could be replenished by pump from the surface.
Dives of over ninety minutes at depths of up to sixty metres were recorded at the time and sustained deep immersion was proven to be both feasible and practical.
Diving Engine
This surface air model was adopted as the way forward and was modified further in 1715 when Englishman John Lethbridge built a diving "engine" that allowed the diver to put his arms into rubber arms and out into the water, and thus carry out salvage work. Water was kept out of the suit by greased leather cuffs which sealed around the wrists.
Diving Suit
Another hundred years passed before the appearance of a personal diving suit that evolved from the equipment invented by Englishman Charles Anthony Dean to assist men in fighting fires.
The brothers Charles and John Deane marketed a diving suit that incorporated a helmet that was strapped and weighted to the diver's shoulders and supplied with air from the surface via a pump and hose system.
Unfortunately this system did seal the helmet to the suit so if the diver bent over the helmet would fill up with water and he was likely to drown.
This drawback notwithstanding, the apparatus proved workable and was used on a number of salvage operations, most notable the salvage of the Royal George in 1834/5.
The suit and helmet combination was brought to its logical conclusion a few years later when Agustus Siebe managed to find a system that allowed him to fasten the helmet to the suit and create a watertight sealed unit.
This closed diving suit system became the first effective, standard diving dress and was the prototype of the hard hat rigs still in use today.
First Workable Diving Rig
Some thirty years later Henry A Fleuss, an English merchant seaman invented the first workable, self contained diving rig that used compressed oxygen rather than compressed air.
In this forerunner to the modern closed circuit scuba units, carbon dioxide was absorbed by a rope soaked in caustic potash so it was possible to breathe exhaled air.
Rig
Although diving depths were limited because of the fact that oxygen becomes toxic below twenty five metres, this system allowed divers the opportunity to stay underwater for up to three hours, free of the usual constraints of the contemporary apparatus.
The usefulness of this freedom became apparent in 1880 when the famous English diver Alexander Lambert entered a flooded tunnel and sealed a hatchway that was sixty feet down and over one thousand feet back inside the tunnel.
The twentieth century, and the two ensuing world wars, saw dive equipment being refined and developed by experts like the influential Jaques Cousteau and other scuba specialists.
Agua Lung - First Regulator
In 1943 Cousteau and natural gas engineer Emile Gagnan worked together to redesign a car regulator so that a diver would automatically be delivered compressed air at the slightest intake of breath.
This device was connected to a twin pair of compressed air tanks and Cousteau tested the apparatus in the cold waters of the Marne River outside Paris.
After a few modifications they patented the equipment and the Aqua Lung was born.
This single piece of apparatus fundamentally altered the diving world with its sturdy construction, reliability and relatively low cost.
The Gagnan-Cousteau regulator opened up the depths to extensive human investigation and provided the opportunity for enthusiastic scientists, engineers and sportsmen to explore a hitherto unknown world.
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