You might know that Alexander the Great used a glass diving bell about three centuries before the birth of Christ, and you probably know that free divers in search of sponges, pearls, and food were plying their trade thousands of years before then. When, though, did people first dive without the aid of surface tethers, and with their own air supplies? As you learn more about some of the earliest self-contained diving inventions, you're certain to enjoy your own modern gear a whole lot more.
William James, Charles Condert, and T. Cato McKeen
While Renaissance scientists Giovanni Borelli and Leonardo da Vinci worked feverishly to find a way to allow men to breathe on their own beneath the surface, English inventor William James designed the first workable breathing system in 1825; but it wasn't until 1831 that New York's Charles Condert manufactured and used the first functional self-contained diving system. It consisted of a gum impregnated canvas suit inflated by a horseshoe-shaped air reservoir that fastened around the waist. Instead of the brass helmet that was commonly used in that era, the suit featured a hood with a small hole in the top that allowed expired air to escape, and air inside the suit could be replenished with an on/off valve. A pump made from the barrel of the gun waited at the surface to recharge the air reservoir from time to time, and a 200 pound ballast weight was used to counteract the effect of the suit's powerful positive buoyancy. Condert used the suit to make several dives to a depth of about 20 feet into the East River; unfortunately, in 1832, just a year after designing the suit, he suffered from a severed hose and drowned as a result.
In 1863, another American inventor named T. Cato McKeen refined the design, plus, he invented one of the first predecessors to the modern buoyancy compensator. He not only added a large back-mounted reservoir to an improved rubber suit, he also installed a secondary air system to inflate the suit and bring the diver to the surface.
The Aerophore and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
In 1865, a pair of French inventors named Benoit Rouquayrol and Auguste Denayrouze invented the Aerophore, which was based on earlier inventions, but which incorporated a regulator that was equipped with a diaphragm-like device to control air delivery. In concept, this regulator was much like the demand valves we use today; expired air was even expelled into the water via a one-way valve in a fashion similar to that of modern regulators. This device could function either independently or with an external air supply. Widely popular, it provided Jules Verne with the inspiration for his novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
These inventions, incredible for their day, were still much less efficient than the diving equipment we enjoy today. By the 1870's inventors were scrambling for ways to make breathing underwater more efficient and safe by developing oxygen systems that could scrub and recirculate breathing gasses - systems that we know today as rebreathers. All these new inventions were being designed for commercial and military use; the idea that diving could be a fun way to spend free time was still fifty years or so away.