On May 27, 1939, Owen P. Churchill made the first operational helium-oxygen or Heliox dive. The rescue and salvage of the submarine Squalus has been one of the greatest achievement in diving. 33 people were evacuated from a depth of 242 ft. The procedures were theorized and tested on animals almost two decades before by Joel Henry Hildebrand with R. R. Sayers and W. P. Yant, but never attempted.
Category: First Time
The first time it was done, seen, developed.
Georges Commeinhes patent the first demand regulator on an open-circuit set
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.
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
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
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
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.
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
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
The first reliable oxygen rebreather developed by Henry Fleuss
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.
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.
First recorded death in an accident with a submarine
Sadly on June 22, 1774, John Day, a carpenter and wheelwright became the first recorded death in a submersible. A bet between Day and Christopher Blake, who noticed his submarines before, was the trigger to attempt the dive.
Day had previously experimented with other builds where he successfully submerged to 9m/30ft before. He was betting he could stay up to 12 hours at a depth of 40m/130ft. Day overestimated the ballast required to bring down his watertight chamber and sank to the bottom with no hope of rescue.
One of the first diving dress from Pierre Rémy de Beauve
In 1715, Sir Pierre Rémy de Beauve, a French aristocrat who served as “garde de la marine” in Brest, build one of the oldest known diving dress. A metal helmet connected to two hoses would allow the diver to breathe the air pumped by a bellow at the surface through one of the hose. The other would be used for the exhaled air.
The first ADS or atmospheric diving suit
Two French brothers, Alphonse and Théodore Carmagnolle patented, in 1882, the first design of an atmospheric diving suit or ADS. The helmet featured 25 small glass viewing ports of 51mm/2-inch. The body was articulated with the help of 22 rolling convoluted joints were never completely waterproof. The whole suit weighted 380kg/840lbs. It was build but never put in service.