Category: Equipment

In 1916, Japan, Riichi Watanabi and the blacksmith Kinzo Ohgushi invented the first scuba, the “Ohgushi’s Peerless Respirator. It could be used as a surfaced supplied unit or from steel cylinders filled with compressed air.

The mask covered the eyes and the nose much like the one of the Ama. The first demand valve scuba was operated by the diver mouth.

The diver had to bite the valve mechanism and the force controlled the flow. In 1919 the British patenting office and in 1920 its counterpart in the US, patented the Ohgushi Respirator.

In 1926 at the swimming pool of Tourelles in Paris, the “Fernez-Le Prieur”, the  European made scuba or self-contained underwater breathing apparatus was first demonstrated. The set was composed of a compressed air cylinder carried on the back and connected to a pressure regulator that was manually adjusted. The Fernez-Le Prieur was a constant flow unit and equipped with 2 pressure gauges. One for the tank pressure and the other for the pressure of the air flowing to the mouthpiece. It is the first unit to make diving untethered to the surface possible.

Many people believe this to be the first scuba but in 1918 in Japan, an inventor patented a similar idea.

In 1952, an Australian named Ted Eldred start his work on the first single hose open-circuit scuba in Melbourne. The Porpoise CA-1 for Compressed Air model 1 came as a set composed of a second stage, a first stage and a single tank. Only about 12,000 were produced.

Orca introduced in 1983, the first commercially electronic dive computer named the EDGE. Orca had a hard time to keep up with the demand from the divers. Their production got limited to one unit a day produced.

Charles Condert, an American engineer, developed in 1831, the first type of real scuba or Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. The air was pumped into a horseshoe-shaped copper tube wrapped around the body of the diver before entering the water. A manual valve allowed the control of the flow from the air reservoir into the diving dress.

On June 17th, 1808, Sir Touboulic, a mechanic in Napoleon’s Imperial Navy filed a patent for a diving machine. There is no evidence of any prototype built and test conducted. The invention he called the “Ichtisandre” was a copper jacket resembling the one of a barrel covering the torso and head while arms and legs were in leather sleeves. Oxygen was stored in a bladder and equipped with a valve leading to the main jacket. The machine was weighted to go down but it could be separated to come up or in the case of an emergency.

Based on lessons learned from the Royal George salvage Colonel Pasley persuaded the Royal Navy of the advantages of Siebe’s diving equipment over the unwieldy dockyard diving bell, Colonel Pasley detached Lance Corporal Jones, Royal Engineers to HMS Excellent in 1844 to train a party of 13 petty officers and seamen in its use. A Royal Navy diving school was established at Whale Island and RN diving became the responsibility of the Gunnery Branch at HMS Excellent while Army diving continued to be the responsibility of the Royal Engineers.