The evolution of diving equipment has unfolded gradually , but along the way there have some landmark inventions that led the way . Alex ‘ Woz ’ Warzynski is your genial curator
KITTED-UP
A history of diving in seven objects
The evolution of diving equipment has unfolded gradually , but along the way there have some landmark inventions that led the way . Alex ‘ Woz ’ Warzynski is your genial curator
Many , many years ago , in 77AD , well before even the most elderly and luxuriantly bearded National Instructor took their first breath , Pliny recorded the use of a breathing tube connecting a diver to the surface . This would have limited the depth to about half way up your thighs , as the combination of water pressure pushing on your chest and sucking in stale air would have made it a very unpleasant experience . Leonardo da Vinci toyed with various ways of taking humans underwater , mostly using some sort of get-in-the-back-of-thevan kidnap style leather bag with a window in it . Eventually , someone upturned a bucket , cut a window in it , and persuaded a chum to man a pump that would push compressed air down a hose and keep the water out . Diving stayed like this for a while , and some quite adventurous stuff was done clumping around the seabed , wrestling squid in black and white films and raising whole fleets of scuttled German warships .
The amateur use of this style of diving didn ’ t really catch on , partly as the equipment was expensive and cumbersome , but mainly as a diver couldn ’ t really be sure that their mate on the pump wouldn ’ t get bored and wander off , or blow pipe smoke into the inlet . So eventually , the self-contained underwater breathing apparatus ( SCUBA ) was born .
Jacques Cousteau on an early dive with the original Aqua-Lung
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