History of Scuba

SCUBA

Ever since the caveman humans have had a fascination with the water for many reason. It was a source of food, mystery and many helpful tools. The first ever trace of scuba was thousands of years ago when primitive man decided to use a hollow read to breathe through. Though the reed was light and worked well it limited the dive to the very surface of the water. The initials scuba stand for self contained breathing apparatus, which means something that one person can operate and be able to breathe underwater with. The reed does qualify under this category but can barley be called a true scuba. The first true record of scuba was in the 15 hundreds found in Leonardo DaVinci's sketches. He had a picture of a freestanding system that included an air supply and a way to control buoyancy. Though like many of Leonardo's sketches, we are unsure whether the scuba system was ever manufactured. Before the world got any further in scuba a man by the name of Robert Boyle discovered the common diving condition known as "the bends" in 1667 by studying snakes underwater. In 1680 Giovanni Borelli worked on a completely different idea of scuba than Leonardo. He tried mixing different chemicals together to try to find a mixture that would cleanse the co2 his body breathed out. Though this idea didn't turn out the important part of his invention was that it was the first to include a gas mask and flippers. Around the turn of the 19th century many people began to study and invent different scuba gear. The basic layout of scuba had been set. A source of oxygen, a helmet, and some sort of suit were all now standard in all scuba layouts. The first somewhat modern scuba was invented by willliam james. It included a belt of compressed air tanks, a copper helmet, and a completely waterproof suit. Lemaire De; augerville, a French man, had the idea to put weights on the belts of scuba suits to allow the diver to control his depth. Around this time the world had many versions of working scubas. The quest to improve the scuba suit was now underway. When Jules Vern published 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea it brought world wide attention to scuba gear, and created a wider market for it, which in turn motivated more inventors to put there time into scuba gear. Around this time construction on the Brooklyn bridge began. After a few days of work underwater, the workers complained of great aches in there joints. After