Gear & Tips · 31 Aug 2025
The history of diving begins long before modern scuba technology, with the earliest free divers who relied solely on lung power to explore the underwater world. For millennia, people have descended underwater while holding their breath to obtain food and resources, and even for military purposes.
The Ama of Japan, often women, have practiced free diving for over 2,000 years, harvesting abalone, pearls, and seaweed. These divers utilized basic equipment and later goggles to reach depths of approximately 20 metres while maintaining breath-hold for extended periods. This practice remains both a cultural tradition and means of livelihood in certain coastal areas.
Diving bells were among the earliest methods for underwater breathing. Starting in antiquity with simple glass barrels attributed to Alexander the Great's era, by the 1500s more sophisticated bells were developed. These open-bottomed air chambers enabled underwater work like sponge and pearl collection but remained heavy, unwieldy, and severely limited by restricted air supplies tethering divers to the surface.
The invention of the dive helmet in the nineteenth century greatly improved underwater capabilities. Refinements by William James and the Deane brothers, culminating in Augustus Siebe's 1837 creation, produced the "hard-hat" system featuring copper or brass helmets paired with canvas suits, surface-supplied air, and exhaust valves. Lead weights enabled seabed walking for salvage operations and military reconnaissance. However, this technology proved unpredictable since surface air supply could be disrupted unexpectedly.
Closed-circuit systems, termed rebreathers, offered an alternative to open-circuit scuba by recirculating breathing gas after removing carbon dioxide and replenishing oxygen. This efficiency produces no bubbles — valuable for military and covert operations.
The first commercially practical rebreather was developed by Henry Fleuss in 1878 in London. His apparatus connected a rubber mask to a breathing bag, supplied oxygen from a copper tank, and scrubbed carbon dioxide using caustic potash-soaked rope yarn. Though experimental, Fleuss's innovation demonstrated self-contained underwater breathing without surface air dependence.