Although it may seem hard to believe, the first diving equipment has been in use for many years. Today, each piece of diving gear is at the cutting edge, but its origins date back hundreds of years.
The First Diving Mask
Diving is one of the oldest water sports in existence, which is why since time immemorial, people have sought a solution to enable the human eye to see clearly underwater. In this case, craftsmen from ancient Greece ingeniously devised what were possibly the first diving masks, made of wood and fitted glass.
By the Middle Ages, fishermen in the Persian Gulf wore masks made of polished tortoiseshell, which would eventually become as transparent as glass, as recounted by the Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta in the year 1331.
However, it wasn't until 1935 that the first masks were industrially produced in France, made of rubber and glass, which have evolved into the ones we use today when we want to go scuba diving.
The Origins of the Snorkel
The snorkel, as we know it today, has a truly inspiring and fascinating origin. Around 360 BC, Aristotle, in his work Problemata, which discusses everything related to explaining man's presence underwater, described how men equipped with an "elephant's trunk" explored the seafloor.
Many years later, the Roman Pliny the Elder (32–79 AD), in his book "Natural History" (written in 77 AD), tells how soldiers in their aquatic operations used a breathing tube where one end was placed in the mouth and the other end was kept afloat attached to a bladder filled with air.
Air Stored in Containers
For centuries, humanity sought ways to use containers that held air to enable breathing underwater. From this quest emerged the diving bells or Greek "lebetas". Aristotle recounts how, in 360 BC, men dedicated to harvesting various species used large weighted bells to breathe the air inside. Free-divers would enter to breathe and then exit to continue working, without having to return to the surface each time.
Want to know more? Read: Diving Bells
The use of countless types and designs of diving bells continued for hundreds of years, with the technique of free-diving, whose effectiveness was limited by the breath-holding capacity of those who practised it. The air inside the bell gradually decreased in oxygen (O2) and increased in carbon dioxide (CO2), depending on the number of divers using it, the volume it held, and the depth at which it was placed.
The air remained at ambient pressure, as the bell was open at the bottom, allowing water to enter and compress the air inside. There were diving bells of various sizes: individual ones, with which the diver could move a few metres by walking along the seabed, like the one by the German Kessler; and larger fixed ones on boats, offering greater autonomy, which could be used by several divers at once to collect objects.
The world of diving is truly fascinating. Its history and how, since ancient times, efforts have been made to ensure that dives, regardless of where they take place, are as satisfying as possible.
