Scuba Gear History

During the month of November we are going to talk about Scuba Diving Gear stating some historical fact, current inventions and description on each and every single part of the Scuba Gears that we use in our dives.
Today's post is a small historical information about the Scuba gear, invention and progress throughout history.

We all use the word SCUBA but do we really know that this is an abbreviation of Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.
The Scuba Gear that we know nowadays was not the same several years ago... but it was a simple gear that started with:

• In 1771, British engineer, John Smeaton invented the air pump. A hose was connected between the air pump and the diving barrel, allowing 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 450 psi 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 the 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 (This is what we call O2 toxicity).

It wasnt before 1942 and thanks to Jacques Cousteau and Emile Gagnant that we have currently what we call a regulator.

Emile Gagnan and Jacques Cousteau invented the modern demand regulator and an improved autonomous diving suit. In 1942, redesigned a car regulator and invented a demand regulator that would automatically fresh air when a diver breathed.

A year Later, they started selling what they call the Aqua-Lung or what we currently call a Regulator, and since this year a new era of Recreational divers started.

So we can say with confidence Thank you Cousteau for giving us what we currently have as Scuba Gears.