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Scuba Diving and underwater navigation [click here to return to previous page]

For centuries people have practiced what is known as “free-diving,” which is to simply navigate underwater by holding your breath; ancient depictions illustrate mankind’s fascination with underwater diving.  The desire to go under water has likely always existed: to hunt for food, uncover artifacts, repair ships (or sink them), and observe marine life.  Yet, until humans found a way for prolonged breathing underwater, each dive was necessarily short and frantic, as one of the major hurdles of underwater diving has always been to stay under for a longer period of time.  Human history has seen a progression in the field of underwater diving: from merely holding one’s breath, to breathing through hollow reeds (reeds more than 2” long do not work well; difficulty inhaling against water pressure effectively limits snorkel length), to breathing from an air-filled bag brought under water (this technique failed for several reasons – the buoyancy of the air bag and rebreathing of carbon dioxide).  It wasn’t until the 16th century that people began using what became known as “diving bells.”  By supplying air from the surface diving bells provided the first truly successful means whereby men were able to effectively stay submerged underwater for substantial lengths of time (two minutes).  The bell was held stationary a few feet from the surface, its bottom open to water and its top portion containing air compressed by the water pressure. A diver standing upright would have his head in the air. He could leave the bell for a period of generally two minutes to navigate.  England and France further developed methods for underwater breathing with the invention of leather diving suits, which allowed for air to be pumped down using manual air pumps.  With semi-effective means for getting air to underwater divers, the next hurdle developed: reaching greater depths.  Leather suits allowed divers to reach substantial depths of up to 60 feet; however, by the mid 1800s divers were using metal surface-supplied air helmets, allowing them to reach deep enough to conduct extensive salvage work.  Underwater diving as we know it today owes a great deal of credit to the scientific research of Dr. Paul Bert and Dr. John Scott of France and Scotland.  The studies of doctors Bert and Scott explained the effects of water pressure on the body as well as defined the safe limits for compressed air diving.  In addition, technology, combined with the knowledge gained by Dr. Bert and Dr. Scott, has made it effectively possible for mankind to reach depths greater then we ever thought possible - for lengths of time longer than we could’ve ever imagined.  Click here to read more about scuba diving and breathing underwater – or –

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Reference material for this scuba diving related informational article: wikipedia – the free online encyclopedia, scuba diving category

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