Scyllis demonstrates practical use of breath-hold diving by performing military exploits for the King of Persia
A diving bell was developed by Guglielmo de Loreno
Guericke developed the first air pump
Robert Boyle observes the decompression sickness or “the bends”
Another diving bell a weighted barrels, connected with an air pipe to the surface, was patented by Edmund Halley
John Lethbridge built an underwater cylinder that was supplied via an air pipe from the surface with compressed air. To prevent the water from entering the cylinder, greased leather connections were integrated at the cylinder for the operators arms.
The first submarine was used for a military attack
Charles Anthony and John Deane patented a helmet for fire fighters. This helmet was used for diving too. This first version was not fitted to the diving suit. The helmet was attached to the body of the diver with straps and air was supplied from the surface
Augustus Siebe sealed the diving helmet of the Deane brothers’ to a watertight diving suit and became the standard for many dive expeditions.
The Royal Navy established the first diving school.
An underwater breathing apparatus was developed and patented by Benoit Rouquayrol and Auguste Denayrouse. A steel tank filled with compressed air was connected to a valve and a mouth-piece. The tank was strapped to the divers back and the diver was tether
Dr. Andrew H. Smith presents his formal report as Surgeon to the New York Bridge Company, builders of the Brooklyn Bridge, about workers who suffered the bends after leaving the pressurised caisson. (The bends was a common problem among caisson workers. The condition also afflicted chief engineer Washington Roebling; he developed a severe, non-fatal case of decompression sickness, permanently impairing his health). By the time of Smith's report, which recommends chamber recompression for future projects, all Brooklyn Bridge caisson work is completed. Smith's report makes no mention of the true cause of decompression sickness: nitrogen bubbles.
An English merchant seaman, Henry A. Fleuss, develops the first workable, self-contained diving rig that uses compressed oxygen (rather than compressed air). In this prototype of closed circuit scuba, which is the forerunner of modern closed circuit scuba units used by military divers, carbon dioxide is absorbed by rope soaked in caustic potash, so that exhaled air can be re-breathed (no bubbles enter the water). Although depths are limited (pure oxygen is toxic below about 25 ft of sea water, a fact not known at the time), the apparatus allows for relatively long bottom times, up to three hours. In 1880 Fleuss's apparatus is used by the famous English diver Alexander Lambert to enter a flooded tunnel and seal a hatchway door; the hatchway is 60 ft down and 1000 ft back into the tunnel.
Frenchman Paul Bert publishes La Pression Barometrique, a 1000-page work containing his physiologic studies of pressure changes. He shows that decompression sickness is due to formation of nitrogen gas bubbles, and suggests gradual ascent as one way to prevent the problem. He also shows that pain can be relieved by recompression. Bert provides the link between Boyle's 17th century observation of decompression sickness in a viper and the symptoms of compressed air workers first recorded in the 19th century.
In 1906 the British Government asks John Scott Haldane, an eminent Scottish physiologist, to do research in the prevention of decompression sickness. Two years later Haldane, Arthur E. Boycott and Guybon C. Damant, publish their landmark paper on decompression sickness (from hyperbaric experiments done on goats). "The Prevention of Compressed-Air Illness" lays the groundwork for staged decompression. Tables based on this work are soon adopted by the British Royal Navy and later the United States Navy, and save many divers from the bends.
The US Navy tests tables published by Boycott, Damant and Haldane.
The US Bureau of Construction and Repair first introduces the Mark V Diving Helmet. When attached to a deep sea dress and umbilical, the Mark V becomes the underwater work horse for decades to come. It is used for "practically all salvage work undertaken during World War II... the MK V Diving Helmet becomes the standard US Navy Diving equipment until succeeded by the MK12 in 1980." (US Navy Diving Manual). "So sound was its design that very few modifications were ever incorporated, and recent models vary only slightly from the 1917 version." (Leaney 1993).
Research is begun in United States into the use of helium-oxygen mixtures for deep dives. To the beginning of World War II, the US maintains a monopoly on helium.
First helium-oxygen experimental dives are conducted by US Navy and Bureau of Mines.
French navy captain Yves Le Prieur modifies the Rouquayrol-Denayrouse invention by combining a specially designed demand valve with a high pressure air tank (1500 psi) to give the diver complete freedom from restricting hoses and lines. The apparatus contains no regulator; the diver receives a breath of fresh air by opening a tap, while exhaled air escapes into the water under the edge of the diver's mask. (In the late 1930s Cousteau used this apparatus but, as he wrote in The Silent World, "the continuous discharge of air allowed only short submersions.") In 1935 Le Prieur's SCUBA is adopted by the French navy.
First sport divers club is started in California, called the Bottom Scratchers; a year later an amateur diving group, Club des Sous-l'Eau, is founded in Paris. A primary purpose of these and similar clubs is underwater spear fishing.
Edgar End and Max Nohl make the first intentional saturation dive, spending 27 hours at a depth of 101 ft in a Milwaukee hospital hyperbaric chamber. Decompression takes five hours and one of the divers (Nohl) suffers the bends.
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.
During World War II, closed circuit scuba equipment are used by Italian divers to place explosives under British naval and merchant marine ships.
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. Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Emile Gagnan designed and tested the first Aqua-Lung. This device is a fundamental improvement on air supply for divers.
A 94 meter dive record in the Mediterranean Sea was made by Dumas equipped with an Aqua Lung regulator.
The first Aqua Lung regulators were imported to the USA and the diving community quickly adopted this new, convenient device.
In California Otis Barton descended to a depth of 1372 meter in a modified bathysphere
A completely self-contained new type of vessel called the bathyscaphe was designed by August Picard and his son Jacques to go deeper than any bathysphere.
Hans Hass published “Diving as Adventure”
“Silent World” National Geographic adventure classics was released by Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Frédéric Dumas, and James Dugan. Before becoming the man who introduced us to the wonders of the sea through his beloved television series, Jacques Cousteau was better known as an engineer and the inventor of scuba. He chronicled his early days of underwater adventure in The Silent World a memoir that was an instant, international bestseller upon its publication in 1954. Now, National Geographic presents a 50th anniversary edition of this remarkable book, allowing readers to once again travel under the sea with Cousteau during the turbulent days of World War II." (amazon)
The television program Kingdom of the Sea starring Zale Parry is aired in the US. That same year Parry broke the depth record by diving to 64 meter near Catalina, CA. Her record attracted many female to scuba diving.
The National Cooperation in Aquatics published the “Science of Skin and Scuba Diving” and it becomes the main textbook for diver education.
The first formal instructor certification program was created by Al Tillman and Bev Morgan.
Sherwood Manufacturing announce the piston regulator.
YMCA organized the first nationally scuba diver certification program and the Underwater Society of America was formed.
Al Tillman and Neal Hess create the National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI).
Jacques Picard and Don Walsh descended to 10921 meter in the bathyscaphe “Trieste”.
The National Association of Skin Diving Schools (NASDS) was founded by John Gaffney.
A number of experiments were conducted whereby people lived in underwater habitats.
In the “Man in the Sea” project Ed Link spends 24 hours at 61 meter.
The Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) was founded by John Cronin and Ralph Ericson.
A dive to 133 meter, using compressed air, was carried out by John J. Gruener and R. Neal Watson.
Bob Clark founded Scuba Schools International (SSI).
Scubapro introduces the Stabilization Jacket.
Divers Alert Network (DAN) was founded at Duke University to promote safe diving.
A dive record to 686 meter was made at the Duke Medical Center decompression chamber.
The first commercially available dive computer, the Orca Edge, was introduced.
The wreck of the Titanic was found.
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