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Attempts at being able to breathe under water, a fundamental part of SCUBA, have been going on for a very long time, such as using hollow reeds. However this is the first instance in which a real form of 'scuba' was used when Alexander the Great used a primitive form of diving bell.
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Guglielmo de Lorena created what could be considered the first real diving bell, it had just enough oxygen to let the diver breathe for short amounts of time.
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Charles V, along with countless other citizens observed as two men used a bronze diving bell in the Tagus River (Toledo) to stay submurged for 20 minutes.
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Sir Edmund Halley, Pattented a new form of diving bell, the actual inventor is a little bit of a shady area, however the bell's design included, thick glass to let light in, it was coated with lead sheets, the barrel was able to be replenished air, three auxiliary ballast weights, individual bells, fastened to diver’s shoulders and connected with a pipe to the main bell, that allowed him to walk away for unlimited time without returning for rebreathing.
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Von Guericke created the first effective air pump
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Robert Boyle investigated decompression sickness or 'the bends' using a snake.
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William Phipps used the diving bell designed by Galilei and Papin to excavate a sunken treasure from a wrecked ship.
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John Lethbridge created a 'diving engine', which was an underwater oak cylinder.
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English inventor, Becker demonstrates his new invention: a full, leather diving suit and large, spherical metal helmet with a window. Three tubes lead from the helmet to the surface, one for exhaled air and the other two for fresh air pumped down by several large bellows
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Edmund Halley invented two types of bells: a wooden bell, assisted with two barrels with fresh air that reached the bell with a tube, and a lead bell. The latter had seats for several divers. Halley, along with 4 others stayed submerged for 90 minutes at 18 meters of depth.
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A Frenchman named Freminet produces a crude brass diving helmet with eye holes. Air is supplied by a bellows into a small air reservoir, then pumped down to the diver.
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The first submarine was used in a military attack
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John and William Braithwaite made improvements on the Freminet helmet.
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Klingert made improvements on Freminet's helmet design.
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John Smeaton improved the diving bell, including a bell made from cast iron; the first efficient hand-operated pump to sustain the air supply via a hose; an air reservoir system and nonreturn valves to keep air from being sucked back up the hoses when the pump stops.
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Robert Fulton, inventor of the steamboat, builds an early submarine, the Nautilus
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Charles Anthony and John Deane patent a Helmet for Fire fighters
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Englishman William H. James designs a self-contained underwater breathing apparatus, where the user wears a helmet and carries a supply of oxygen.
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Charles Anthony and John Deane market their helmet with a diving suit.
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Charles Condert develops a type of scuba in which air is stored in a copper pipe worn around the body, he dies while testing this.
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Augustus Siebe, a German instrument maker, refines and improves the Deane's diving suit design and introduces the "Siebe Improved Diving Dress"
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Siebe's suit was used for underwater recovery missions, bringing diving into more popularity.
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The Royal Navy established the first diving school
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An improved scuba outfit is developed by Frenchmen Benoit Rouquayrot and Auguste Denayrouze, it was created to get air from the surface through a tube, as well as to have a minute supply in the suit.
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English seaman Henry Fleuss invents a compact, lightweight scuba that uses pure compressed oxygen and a system to "reuse" the air that the diver exhales by removing the carbon dioxide from it and recirculating it back to the diver over and over again.
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Paul Bert publishes a textbook, La Pression Barometrique, based on his studies of the physiological effect of changes in pressure. Bert shows that decompression sickness is caused by the formation of gas bubbles in the body, and suggests that gradual ascent will prevent decompression sickness
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Louis Boutan invented the first underwater camera
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Detailed studies on the cause and symptoms on decompression sickness were published by John Scott Haldane, Arthur E. Boycott and Guybon C. Damant.
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Draeger of Germany introduces an oxygen re-breather.
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The U.S. Navy tested decompression tables published by John Scott Haldane, Arthur E. Boycott and Guybon C. Damant.
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The Mark V Diving Helmet was introduced by the U.S. Bureau of Construction & Repair.
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W. H. Longley became famous for the first underwater color photos.
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A very successful self-contained underwater breathing unit is introduced by Yves Le Prieur
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A bathysphere attached to a barge by a steel cable to the mother ship has been used for William Beebe descended to 435 meter
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Rubber goggles with glass lenses are developed by Guy Gilpatric
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Yves Le Prieur develops a demand valve with a high pressure air tank.
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Swim fins are patented by Louisde Corlieu in France
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During World War II, closed circuit scuba equipment are used by Italian divers to place explosives under British naval and merchant marine ships
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Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Emile Gagnan redesigned a car regulator that would automatically provide compressed air to a diver on his slightest intake of breath.
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Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Emile Gagnan designed and tested the first Aqua-Lung.
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A completely self-contained new type of vessel called the bathyscaphe was designed by August Picard and his son Jacques to go deeper than any bathysphere
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The Reserve Valve, later commonly known as "J" valve was developed
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The first formal instructor certification program was created by Al Tillman and Bev Morgan
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At the University of California the first wetsuit is introduced by scientists
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YMCA organized the first nationally scuba diver certification program and the Underwater Society of America was formed
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Al Tillman and Neal Hess create the National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI).
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The National Association of Skin Diving Schools (NASDS) was founded by John Gaffney
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The Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) was founded by John Cronin and Ralph Ericson
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Bob Clark founded Scuba Schools International (SSI).
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Scubapro introduces the Stabilization Jacket
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Divers Alert Network (DAN) was founded at Duke University to promote safe diving
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The first commercially available dive computer, the Orca Edge, was introduced.
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The wreck of the Titanic was found.
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The use of mixed gases, like Oxygen and Helium, full face masks, underwater voice communication, propulsion systems, computer, etc. became more common in the 1990s.
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Bret Gilliam and Mitch Skaggs formed Technical Diving International (TDI)
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Scuba Diving International (SDI) was created
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Technology and the community for SCUBA is continuously growing and improving.
