| |
|
History of Scuba Diving
consul general
butch bandillo farewell party
see more photos...
|
|
|
|
Men and women have
practiced breath-hold diving for centuries. Indirect evidence comes from
thousand-year-old undersea artifacts found on land (e.g., mother-of-pearl
ornaments), and depictions of divers in ancient drawings. In ancient Greece
breath-hold divers are known to have hunted for sponges and engaged in
military exploits. Of the latter, the story of Scyllis (sometimes spelled
Scyllias; about 500 B.C.) is perhaps the most famous. As told by the 5th
century B.C. historian Herodotus (and quoted in numerous modern texts),
|
|
|
|
| |
During a naval
campaign the Greek Scyllis was taken aboard ship as prisoner by the Persian
King Xerxes I. When Scyllis learned that Xerxes was to attack a Greek
flotilla, he seized a knife and jumped overboard. The Persians could not
find him in the water and presumed he had drowned. Scyllis surfaced at night
and made his way among all the ships in Xerxes's fleet, cutting each ship
loose from its moorings; he used a hollow reed as snorkel to remain
unobserved. Then he swam nine miles (15 kilometers) to rejoin the Greeks off
Cape Artemisium. |
|
|
|
| |
The desire to go under
water has probably always existed: to hunt for food, uncover artifacts, repair
ships (or sink them!), and perhaps just to observe marine life. Until humans
found a way to breathe underwater, however, each dive was necessarily short
and frantic. |
|
|
|
| |
How to stay under water
longer? Breathing through a hollow reed allows the body to be submerged, but
it must have become apparent right away that reeds more than two feet long do
not work well; difficulty inhaling against water pressure effectively limits
snorkel length. Breathing from an air-filled bag brought under water was also
tried, but it failed due to re-breathing of carbon dioxide. |
|
|
|
| |
In the 16th century
people began to use diving bells supplied with air from the surface, probably
the first effective means of staying under water for any length of time. The
bell was held stationary a few feet from the surface, its bottom open to water
and its top portion containing air compressed by the water pressure. A diver
standing upright would have his head in the air. He could leave the bell for a
minute or two to collect sponges or explore the bottom, then return for a
short while until air in the bell was no longer breathable. |
|
|
|
| |
In 16th century England
and France, full diving suits made of leather were used to depths of 60 feet.
Air was pumped down from the surface with the aid of manual pumps. Soon
helmets were made of metal to withstand even greater water pressure and divers
went deeper. By the 1830s the surface-supplied air helmet was perfected well
enough to allow extensive salvage work.
|
|
|
|
| |
Starting in the 19th
century, two main avenues of investigation - one scientific, the other
technologic - greatly accelerated underwater exploration. Scientific research
was advanced by the work of Paul Bert and John Scott Haldane, from France and
Scotland, respectively. Their studies helped explain effects of water pressure
on the body, and also define safe limits for compressed air diving. At the
same time, improvements in technology - compressed air pumps, carbon dioxide
scrubbers, regulators, etc., - made it possible for people to stay under water
for long periods.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
TIMELINE
|
|
|
|
| |
|
1535 |
Guglielmo de
Loreno developed what is considered to be a true diving bell. |
|
|
|
|
1650 |
Von Guericke
developed the first effective air pump. |
|
|
|
|
1667 |
Robert Boyle observed a gas
bubble in the eye of viper that had been compressed and then
|
|
|
decompressed. This was the first
recorded observation of decompression sickness or "the bends."
|
|
|
|
|
1691 |
Edmund Halley patented a diving
bell which was connected by a pipe to weighted barrels of air
|
|
|
that could be replenished from
the surface. |
|
|
|
|
1715 |
John Lethbridge built a "diving
engine", an underwater oak cylinder that was surface-supplied
|
|
|
with compressed air. Water was
kept out of the suit by means of greased leather cuffs, which
|
|
|
sealed around the operator's
arms. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Figure 1. Halley's diving bell, late 17th century. Weighted
barrels of air replenished the bell's atmosphere. (U.S. Navy Diving
Manual)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
1776 |
First authenticated attack by military
submarine - American Turtle vs. HMS Eagle, New York
|
| |
harbor. |
| |
|
|
1788 |
John Smeaton refined the diving bell. |
| |
|
|
1823 |
Charles Anthony Deane patented a "smoke helmet" for
fire fighters. This helmet was used for |
| |
diving, too. The helmet fitted over the head and was
held on with weights. Air was supplied from |
| |
the surface. |
| |
|
|
1828 |
Charles Deane and his brother John marketed the
helmet with a "diving suit." The suit was not |
| |
attached to the helmet, but secured with straps.
|
| |
|
|
1837 |
Augustus Siebe sealed the Deane brothers' diving
helmet to a watertight, air-containing rubber |
| |
suit. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Figure 2. Siebe's early diving suit. (U.S. Navy Diving Manual)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1839 |
Seibe's diving suit was used during the salvage
of the British warship HMS Royal George. The |
|
|
improved suit was adopted as the standard diving
dress by the Royal Engineers. |
|
|
|
|
1843 |
The first diving school was established by the Royal
Navy. |
|
|
|
|
1865 |
Benoit Rouquayrol and Auguste Denayrouse patented an
apparatus for underwater breathing. It |
|
|
consisted of a horizontal steel tank of compressed
air on a diver's back, connected to a valve |
|
|
arranged to a mouth-piece. With this apparatus the
diver was tethered to the surface by a hose |
|
|
that pumped fresh air into the low pressure tank, but
he was able to disconnect the tether and |
|
|
dive with just the tank on his back for a few
minutes. |
|
|
|
|
1876 |
Henry A. Fleuss developed the first workable,
self-contained diving rig that used compressed oxygen . |
|
|
|
|
| |
 |
Figure 3. Aerophore
patented in 1865 by BenoitŒt Rouquayrol and Auguste Denayrouse. (Courtesy
Historical Diving Society)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
1878 |
Paul Bert published La Pression Barometrique,
a book length work containing his physiologic |
| |
studies of pressure changes.
|
| |
|
|
1908 |
John Scott Haldane, Arthur E. Boycott and Guybon C. Damant,
published "The Prevention of |
| |
Compressed-Air Illness", a paper
on decompression sickness. |
| |
|
|
1912 |
The U.S. Navy tested tables
published by Haldane, Boycott and Damant. |
| |
|
|
1917 |
The U.S. Bureau of Construction &
Repair introduced the Mark V Diving Helmet. It was used for
|
| |
most salvage work during World
War II. The Mark V Diving Helmet became the standard U.S. Navy
|
| |
Diving equipment. |
| |
|
|
1924 |
First helium-oxygen experimental
dives were conducted by U.S. Navy and Bureau of Mines. |
| |
|
|
1930 |
William Beebe descended 1,426
feet in a bathysphere attached to a barge by a steel cable to the
|
| |
mother ship. |
| |
|
|
1930s |
Guy Gilpatric pioneered the use
of rubber goggles with glass lenses for skin diving. By
the mid- |
| |
1930s, face masks, fins, and snorkels were in common use. Fins were
patented by Louis de |
| |
Corlieu in 1933. |
| |
|
|
1933 |
Yves Le Prieur
modified the Rouquayrol-Denayrouse invention by combining a demand valve
with a |
| |
high pressure air tank to give
the diver complete freedom from hoses and lines. |
| |
|
|
1934 |
William Beebe and Otis Barton
descended 3,028 feet in a bathysphere. |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
 |
Figure 4. Vertical
cross section of the McCann-Erickson Rescue Chamber. (Courtesy U.S.
Navy Diving Manual.)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
1940 |
(breath-hold; scuba). First year
of production of Owen Churchill's swim fins. Initially, only 946
|
| |
pairs are sold, but in later
years production increases substantially, and tens of thousands are
|
| |
sold to the Allied forces.
|
| |
|
|
1941-1944 |
During World War II, Italian
divers used closed circuit scuba equipment to place explosives
|
| |
under British naval and merchant
marine ships. |
| |
|
|
1942-43 |
Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Emile Gagnan
redesigned a car regulator that would automatically |
| |
provide compressed air to a diver
on his slightest intake of breath. The Aqua Lung was born.
|
| |
|
|
1946 |
Cousteau's Aqua Lung was marketed
commercially in France. (Great Britain 1950, Canada |
| |
1951, USA 1952). |
| |
|
|
1947 |
Dumas made a record dive with the
Aqua Lung to 307 feet in the Mediterranean Sea.
|
| |
|
|
1948 |
Otis Barton descended in a
modified bathysphere to a depth of 4500 feet, off the coast of
|
| |
California. |
| |
|
|
1951 |
The first issue of Skin Diver
Magazine appeared in December. |
| |
|
|
1953 |
The Silent World by Cousteau was
published chronicling the development of the Cousteau- |
| |
Gagnan
Aqua Lung. |
| |
|
|
1950s |
August Picard with son Jacques
pioneered a new type of vessel called the bathyscaphe. It was
|
| |
completely self-contained and
designed to go deeper than any bathysphere. |
| |
|
|
1954 |
Georges S. Houot and Pierre-Henri Willm
used a bathyscaphe to exceed Barton's 1948 diving |
| |
record, reaching a depth of
13,287 feet. |
| |
|
|
1957 |
The first segment of Sea Hunt
aired on television, starring Lloyd Bridges as Mike Hunt,
|
| |
underwater adventurer.
|
| |
|
|
1959 |
YMCA began the first nationally
organized course for scuba certification. |
| |
|
|
1960 |
Jacques Picard
and Don Walsh descended to 35,820 feet in the bathyscaphe Trieste.
|
| |
|
|
1960 |
NAUI was
formed. |
| |
|
|
1962 |
Beginning in 1962 several
experiments were conducted whereby people lived in underwater
habitats. |
| |
|
|
1966 |
PADI was
formed. |
| |
|
|
1968 |
John J. Gruener
and R. Neal Watson dove to 437 feet breathing compressed air. |
| |
|
|
1970s |
Important advances relating to
scuba safety that began in the 1960s became widely |
| |
implemented in the 1970s, such as
certification cards to indicate a minimum level of training,
|
| |
change from J-valve reserve
systems to non-reserve K valves, and adoption of the BC and
|
| |
single hose regulators as
essential pieces of diving equipment. |
| |
|
|
1980 |
Divers Alert Network was founded
at Duke University as a non-profit organization to promote
|
| |
safe diving. |
| |
|
|
1981 |
Record 2250 foot-dive was made in
a Duke Medical Center chamber. |
| |
|
|
1983 |
The Orca Edge, the first
commercially available dive computer, was introduced. |
| |
|
| |
|
|
1985 |
The wreck of the Titanic was
found. |
| |
|
|
1990s |
An estimated 500,000 new scuba
divers are certified yearly in the U.S., new scuba magazines
|
| |
form and scuba travel is big
business. There is an increase of diving by non-professionals who
|
| |
use advanced technology,
including mixed gases, full face masks, underwater voice
|
| |
communication, propulsion
systems, and so on. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The above information
was obtained from
Scuba Diving Explained by Lawrence Martin, M.D.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Things to Ponder Upon....
|
|
|
|
| |
