Category: Diving history from Renaissance to the present time

All the diving history from the Renaissance to the present time.

Robert Boyle publish his law of ideal gas

Boyle's book, New experiments physico-mechnical Touching The Spring of the Air and its effects

Boyle’s law was first published in 1662 by Robert Boyle in his book titled; New Experiments Physico-Mechanical, Touching the Spring of the Air, and its Effects. His theory is a fundamental principle of physics that applies to all diving as well as other common things.

Drawings of Boyle air pump
Drawings of Boyle air pump

Boyle’s law states that, at a constant temperature, the product of the pressure and volume of a given mass of an ideal gas in a closed system is always constant.This have allowed us to understand many aspects of diving. Simple things like equalization, as well as a foundation of further research that lead to the decompression theory we know and use today.

Georges Commeinhes patent the first demand regulator on an open-circuit set

Commeinhes diving apparatus patent drawings

In 1937, Georges Commeinhes son of René adapted the breathing apparatus from his father for underwater uses. It was in the form of a two-cylinder open-circuit and had a demand valve regulator hooked to a full face mask. The demand regulator patented in 1939 was located in a rectangular box between the two cylinders. Georges dive with his GC-42 for Georges Commeinhes year 1942, to a depth of 53 meters in the Mediterranean near Marseilles.

Commeinhes GC-42 Underwater breathing apparatus
Commeinhes GC-42 Underwater breathing apparatus

Shortly after this demonstration, the apparatus production started with most to supply the French Navy. After joining the Allied Forces after they landed in Normandy, Georges Commeinhes got killed by a sniper in 1944 in the north of France. This put an end to further efforts to develop further the CG-47, which was the last model produced.

Rouquayrol file a patent in the US

Benoit Rouquayrol US Patent No US59529

In 1866, Benoit Rouquayrol patented his invention with the US Patent Office. It is filed under Improvement in regulating the flow of gases in apparatus for diving. It is described as to regulate the flow of compressed gases, and to furnish to the diver or workman who employs it respirable air under a pressure equal to that of the medium in which he is.

The diving machine of Klingert

Klingert Diving machine 1797

In 1797, Karl Heinrich Klingert from Wrocław, Poland, designed a machine that would allow humans to venture underwater. It was composed of a copper helmet connected with a leather shirt to a large metal belt from which were attached the legs also made of leather. The helmet had two hoses as it needed to be supplied from an external reservoir. Klingert ran the first series of test in the next year, F. W. Joachim, his assistant, successfully complete several dives.

Louis de Corlieu demonstrate his fins to the French Navy

Louis de Corlieu with fins and hand paddles

In 1914, Frenchman Louis de Corlieu made the first public demonstrations of his fins or “propulseurs de nage” as he called them. Being capitaine de corvette (Lieutenant Commander) in the French Navy, he wanted to display the effectiveness of his invention to his colleagues that included Yves Le Prieur.

Portait photo of Louis De Corlieu Lieutenant Commander in the French Navy
Louis De Corlieu Lieutenant Commander in the French Navy

De Corlieu swan during 6 hours covering 8 km in 12°C water in Saint-Jean-de-Luz bay, southern France. Many people attribute the invention of the fins to Louis de Corlieu but many other design and patents are filed before like the flexible ones of Dunlop. We could say he his the one who made the fins spread with the story of Owen Churchill.

The first flexible fins patented by R. H. W. Dunlop

Image from R. H. W. Dunlop US Patent No. 183045 Swimming aids and fins

In 1876, Robert Henry Wallace Dunlop filed a patent for improved fins. In the new design, hands and foot pockets were added. It also represented the first multi material flexible fin. The blade of the fin could be made of nitro-cellulose which is like a hard rubber. No one really knows what happened after the patent as Dunlop died almost 10 years later in 1887.

The original patent application can be found in

Improvement in hand and foot plates for swimming - US Patent Office - Patent No. 183,045 - Robert H. W. Dunlop - June 23, 1876 - US183045.pdf
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The Aqua-lung regulator set commercialized by La Spirotechnique

Photo of Aqua-Lung or CG45 La Spirotechnique 1945

Mass production of Aqua-Lung double hose regulators started in 1946 with La Spirotechnique, a branch of the Air Liquide company. Their first model the CG-45 was named after Cousteau and Gagnan and the number 45 was the year it obtained the patent. The Aqua-lung was the model name for english speaking countries but in Britain, Aqua-lung became the name commonly used for any underwater breathing apparatus. Seen in early BSAC manuals of the 50s, diving being described as “aqualunging”. The model sold for about 10 years before they commercialized the Mistral.

The first reliable oxygen rebreather developed by Henry Fleuss

Photo of Henry Fleuss wearing an oxygen rebreather in 1878

The first reliable oxygen rebreather was developed in 1878 by Henry Fleuss, an English seaman. Year at which he obtained a patent for a closed circuit system that used a tank of compress oxygen and a canister with ropes soaked in caustic potash. This absorbed the carbon dioxide from the exhaled gas to be recycled back to the diver. He tested his device in 1879 staying 1 hour underwater in a water tank.

Photo of Henry Albert Fleuss
Henry Albert Fleuss

This absorbed the carbon dioxide from the exhaled gas to be recycled back to the diver. He tested his device in 1879 staying 1 hour underwater in a water tank.