HISTORY
Humans have been diving ever since primitive man was forced to collect food from the sea. In the past, the recovery of valuable goods from shipwrecks forced the invention of experimental diving devices, leading to the diving bell, in which workers could spend periods underwater; and the diving helmet, which was invented by Englishmen Charles and John Deane of Whitstable in 1829.
The history of sport diving can be traced more directly to the invention of the first autonomous diving gear which did not require lines or air hoses to the surface.
This new concept was invented by William James, an Englishman, who in 1825 produced a workable design in which compressed air was carried in a circular iron container around the diver's waist. There is no record of James diving so the first use of an independent apparatus was by an American, Charles Condert. He built and used a horseshoe shaped waist mounted air container which provided a continuous flow of air to a flexible helmet. Condert dived with this equipment many times in New York's East River before his death, due to a broken air tube in 1832.
The next breakthrough was made by two Frenchmen, Rouquayrol and Denayrouse in 1865. They used a metal cannister charged to pressure of 40 bars and carried on the back. Their most important invention was a demand regulator which enabled the dive to breath his air at the same pressure as the surrounding water. This apparatus was marketed for sponge and wreck diving.
With the developments of high-pressure cylinders, more experiments with compressed air took place. Louis Boutan, a French pioneer underwater photographer, produced an air-breathing set with a cylinder charged to nearly 200 bars, but it was the Japanese who marketed 'Ohgushi's Peerless Respirator', patented in Britain in 1918.
Another important pioneer was Commandant Yves Le Prieur of the French Navy, who was the first to consider amateur sport diving in the sea. He produced a lightweight compressed-air apparatus with a regulator that was not fully automatic. He first used goggles and later a full face mask with his equipment. In 1935 he founded the first diving club to train with his apparatus in Paris.
The development of modern fins, mask and snorkel tubes was due to the breath holding underwater fishermen who operated in the south of France in the 1920s and 1930s. The first of these was an American, Guy Gilpatric, who inspired both Hans Hass and Jacques Cousteau. Gilpatric used a pair of old flying goggles, plugged with putty and painted over. His Russian friend, Karamarenko, produced the first rubber mask with a single window. Fins were patented by de Corliev in France in 1929. The firs snorkel tube was used by the Englishman Steve Butler. The development of the basic equipment was therefore a joint effort by American, Russians, Frenchmen, and Englishmen.
The first fully automatic aqualung was developed by the Frenchman Georges Commeinhes. His twin cylinders were used with a full face mask and air escaped from a special valve instead of around the edges of the mask. The set also had a pressure gauge. The pressure of the cylinder was 150 bars. Meanwhile, Jacques Cousteau, a French Navy officer, was also working to develop an efficient aqualung. In 1942, he combined with engineer Emile Gagnan to produce a new regulator with an inlet and exhaust tube that was fully automatic. The modern aqualung was born!