A Short History

Rouqayrol's underwater breathing apparatus

A short history of "SCUBA"

The mysterious depths have always fascinated Men. Diving has a very long history, it is admitted that professional skin divers existed already in the 11th century BC. They were fishing sponges, corals and pearls and able to reach depth up to 100 ft. Some were also devoted to military activities. For example, they could cut the anchor of an enemy boat or damage its hull. In the 4th century BC Alexander the Great supposedly made a descent in a machine that was probably a primitive form of diving bell.
In the first century BC in Japan, the Amahs, women divers, where collecting shells and sea weed only wearing goggles with mica lenses. In Korea, Cheju’s female divers, known as haenyo, are carrying a 1,500 year old tradition and still dive for abalones, sea urchins, octopuses. They dive as deep as 60 feet and hold their breath for up to 2 minutes.
          Various techniques were proposed in order to increase the duration of the dive. The first suggested the use of tubes emerging on the surface. In 1717 the British astronomer Edmund Halley devised one of the first practical diving bells, an open-bottomed wooden chamber with glass windows in the top to admit light. Air was supplied through leather tubes connected to air casks that could be lowered into the water as needed. As water entered the casks, the air in them was forced through the tubes into the upper part of the diving bell, which was kept clear of water by the pressure of the air. A modern steel version of this device, supplied with compressed air pumped through a hose, is used for such underwater work as building bridges, piers, and jetties.
          Officially the invention of the very first diving suit is allotted to the English Auguste Siebe, who in 1819, developed a diving suit. Based on the principle of the diving bell, it consisted of a leather jacket fitted to a metal helmet into which air was pumped from the surface through a flexible hose. This is the ancestor of the heavy diving suits still used nowadays. Several other attempts preceded this invention. However, almost all required that a pipe ensured a link with the surface, so that the diver can breathe.
          It is only in 1865 that Rouquayrol and Denayrouse got free from that pipe. The solutions considered will take the name of " Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus ", or SCUBA. In 1863 for miners Rouquayrol created a high pressure tank which delivered air through a valve and a membrane. This mechanism gives without effort the exact amount of air needed. With Auguste Denayrouse they adapted the system for the underwater world. The volume of the tank is 8 liters and the pressure 30 bars (450psi): the scuba diver is autonomous under water. This equipment will inspire the French writer Jules Vernes in his book: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1870).
          It will be necessary to wait until 1943 so that, the French Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Emile Gagnan created on the same principle, the “Aqua-Lung” by combining a system of compressed air and a regulator with request. This time the commercial success happens: the Aqua-lung has made recreational diving possible for thousands of non professional divers.

Bernard