When was SCUBA invented?

Answer 1

The aqualung was invented 1943. Prior to that Scuba diving was done on rebreathers, but they were really only used by the military.
It was invented in 1942 and but they started selling the scuba gear for other people in 1943.
Scuba history from a diving bell developed by Guglielmo de Loreno in 1535 up to John Bennett's dive in the Philippines to amazing 308 meter in 2001 and much more... For more information please see lnks below for more information.

Answer 2

HISTORYThe first known equipment to actually allow breathing underwater was invented in 1620 by Englishman Cornelius Drebbel. Designed for use in an oar-powered submarine, it used heated saltpeter to emit oxygen. The resulting potassium hydroxide absorbed the carbon dioxide produced during respiration. This first crude "rebreather" went generally undeveloped for two centuries. CLOSED CIRCUIT REBREATHERS WERE FIRST SCUBA IN MID-1800sInventions in 1853 by Belgian T. Schwann, in 1878 by Englishman Henry Fleuss and in 1900 by Englishman Sir Robert Davis, were some of the earliest working self contained breathing gear. These systems were "closed-circuit" designs, meaning that the exhaled gas is retained in the system and made breathable again. They all shared the common trait of using pure oxygen as the breathing gas. This limited their use to very shallow water (<30 feet) due to the toxic effects of oxygen at increased partial pressures. These designs were first used in non-diving applications for rescue and mine safety until the 1930s when Italian sport spearfirshermen began to adapt them for use spearfishing.

World War II saw the first military application of oxygen-based rebreather-type SCUBA equipment, first by the Italians using modified spearfishing units and then by the English using designs based on captured Italian units. The German firm Draeger, which had developed a rebreather for mine rescue in 1907, supplied oxygen rebreathers to the German military. All of these oxygen-based systems were limited to shallow water demolition and combat swimmer delivery. American Christian Lambertson developed this concept into the first truly modern military rebreathers beginning in 1939. Lambert's devices were the first to actually be called SCUBA, the wartime code name for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus.

MODERN OPEN CIRCUIT SCUBA INVENTED IN 1943As far as most divers are concerned, however, the real breakthrough in SCUBA came in in 1943 by Frenchmen Emile Gagnan and Jacques Yves Cousteau. Modifying a welding regulator into a pressure-sensitive demand regulator and coupling it with three air-filled welding gas cylinders, they invented the first open-circuit SCUBA gear. Open-circuit SCUBA allows the exhaled gas to escape into the water as waste gas. The two Frenchmen eventually sold this equpment under the name "Aqua-Lung" and started a company which became U.S. Divers and is now known as Aqualung International.

The Gagnan/Costeau invention of open-circuit (non-rebreathing) SCUBA using air as the breathing gas allowed the first widespread diving by civilians. The use of air allowed diving to depths far in excess of those allowed by pure oxygen and the technically simple open-circuit design, while less efficient than cosed-circuit, could be used safely with relatively little training. The Aqua-Lung was the key invention that opened up the oceans to generations of recreational divers.

The first Aqua-Lung designs used a single pressure regulator mounted at the tank valve which delivered air and exhaust gases via two large-diameter corrugated over-the-shoulder breathing hoses very similar to those used by rebreathers. A generation of early SCUBA divers grew up watching actor Lloyd Bridges as Mike Nelson using double hose Aqua-Lung and Voit regulators on television's Sea Hunt program.

The first modern two stage, single hose regulator was manufactured and distributed as the "Sport Diver" by Divers Supply in Wilmington California in the early 1950s. This design, an offshoot of surface supplied commercial gear, uses a first stage regulator mounted at the tank valve delivering air to a mouthpiece-mounted second stage via a small-diameter intermediate-pressure (140 psi) hose. At about the same time as Divers Supply began selling the Sport Diver regulator, Australian Ted Elred designed a similar single hose system which he marketed as the Porpoise. Today, virtually all modern open-circuit SCUBA gear uses this design, though Aqualung did market a "modern" double hose Mistral model in 2005 and 2006.

CONTROVERSYThere is some controversy over the invention of the first single hose regulator. The invention was motivated by an effort to bypass Aqua-Lung's patent on the double hose regulator. This patent involved the return of exhaust gas to the regulator to reduce the differential pressure and therefore reduce work of breathing. The single hose regulator accomplishes this by relocating a portion of the regulator to the point of exhaust, rather than routing the exhaust back to the regulator.

Divers Supply, which had been supplying commercial surface-supplied breathing systems, replaced the surface air supply with a tank-mounted first stage pressure regulator. Ted Elred claims to have developed his nearly identical system contemporaneously in Australia. Since neither party chose to patent the invention, it is difficult now to know if either design was inspired by the other or if, in fact, they were truly spontaneous inventions. There seems to be some evidence that the Divers Supply unit hit the market just prior to the Elred Porpoise, but there is no evidence that Elred was aware of it.

Answer 3

Inventions in 1853 by Belgian T. Schwann, in 1878 by Englishman Henry Fleuss and in 1900 by Englishman Sir Robert Davis, were some of the earliest working self contained breathing gear. These systems were "closed-circuit" designs, meaning that the exhaled gas is retained in the system and made breathable again. They all shared the common trait of using pure oxygen as the breathing gas. This limited their use to very shallow water (<30 feet) due to the toxic effects of oxygen at increased partial pressures. These designs were first used in non-diving applications for rescue and mine safety until the 1930s when Italian sport spearfirshermen began to adapt them for use spearfishing.

World War II saw the first military application of oxygen-based rebreather-type SCUBA equipment, first by the Italians using modified spearfishing units and then by the English using designs based on captured Italian units. The German firm Draeger, which had developed a rebreather for mine rescue in 1907, supplied oxygen rebreathers to the German military. All of these oxygen-based systems were limited to shallow water demolition and combat swimmer delivery. American Christian Lambertson developed this concept into the first truly modern military rebreathers beginning in 1939. Lambert's devices were the first to actually be called SCUBA, the wartime code name for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus

Answer 4

In 1771, British engineer, John Smeaton invented the air pump. A hose was connected between the air pump and the diving 'barrel', allowing for air to be pumped to the diver. In 1772,

Frenchmen, Sieur Freminet invented a 'rebreathing' device that recycled the exhaled air from inside of the barrel -- this was the first self-contained air device. Freminet's invention was a poor one; the inventor died from lack of oxygen after being in his own device for twenty minutes.

In 1825, English inventor, William James designed another self-contained breather -- a cylindrical iron "belt" attached to a copper helmet. The belt held about 450psi of air, enough for a seven minute dive.

In 1876, Englishmen, Henry Fleuss invented a closed-circuit, oxygen rebreather. His invention was originally intended to be used in a repair of an iron door of a flooded ship's chamber.

Fleuss then decided to use his invention for a thirty foot deep, dive underwater. He died from the pure oxygen; oxygen is toxic to humans under pressure.

In 1926, French naval officer, Yves Leprieur invented a system using a 2,000-psi steel tank, which flowed air into a full-face mask.

In 1939, American, Dr. Christian Lambertsen designed a 'Self-Contained Underwater Oxygen Breathing Apparatus' for the U.S. military. It was part of the war effort, code-named 'SCUBA'.

Lambertsen's 'SCUBA' gear worked for shallow dives, but the gas mixture was wrong for greater depths and divers were dying from the oxygen toxicity.

In 1943, Frenchmen, Emile Gagnan and Jacques Cousteau invented the demand regulator, which adjusted the air pressure automatically, supplying air as the diver needed it. Gagnan had

started design work on a similar regulator for automobile research, when cooking oil was used to replace gasoline during the war. Gagnan designed a New Products regulator to work with the

cooking oil fuel. Together, Gagnan and Cousteau further improved the designs of diving equipment. Their regulator was connected to three cylinders, each holding 2,500 psi of air. The complete equipment, or autonomous diving suit with the pressure regulator, was called the "Aqua-lung". The "Aqua-lung" is the basis for modern equipment used today, most historians refer to Gagnan and Cousteau as the fathers of modern scuba diving gear.

Answer 5

1932 1932

Answer 6

1943

Answer 7

2009