The first autonomous diving equipment equipped with air pressure, was built by William H. James (England) in 1825. The equipment, a type of cylindrical container, was placed around the body with straps and was loaded at 30 kg/cm². It was equipped with a helmet with a front window connected to the container, which allowed work to be carried out at shallow depths.
The first antecedent of the current regulator appeared in 1865 as a result of the investigations of two men: the mining engineer, Benoit Rouquayrol and the naval officer Auguste Denayrouze; They call their invention "aerophore." This consisted of a metal tank with a capacity of 0.8 liters, which stored the air sent to it from the surface by means of a compressor at a pressure of 30 kg/cm². The air was sucked in on demand by the diver through a pressure valve connected to a tube and a mouthpiece. But the best thing was that it could be disconnected from the power source on the surface, giving the diver limited autonomy. In addition, they developed, together with the "aerophore", a facial adaptation of the classic helmet to improve underwater vision.
In August 1926, Paul Gaston Yves Le Prieur, a French naval officer, tested autonomous equipment consisting of a three-liter bottle loaded at 150 kg/cm² in a Paris swimming pool. Although it works, the air comes out in a constant flow and is regulated by a stopcock. However, a precursor to the first facial mask is successfully used. The helmet window has much larger dimensions that greatly facilitate vision. The drawback is that the diver moves vertically walking along the bottom weighted with his heavy shoes. This equipment was tested up to 50 meters deep.
In 1935, the first diving fins were marketed. Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's model, they were designed by the French navy commander Louis de Corlieu, they were made of rubber and would represent a radical change in underwater movements. The rest of the components of the light equipment, snorkel and mask that covered the nose and eyes, would be patented and marketed for the first time in 1938.
Finally, it would be in December 1942 when the French engineer Emile Gagnan and the naval lieutenant Jacques Yves Cousteau invented the on-demand regulator, which they called "aqualung", and which would open definitely the doors of underwater exploration. Cousteau successfully tested it in July 1943. It was used in October of the same year, in a cove on the French Riviera, by the French swimmer Fréderic Dumas; That day he managed to descend with three five-liter bottles loaded at 150 kg/cm², to a depth of 64 meters.
The regulator was a "bitrachea", named for the two tubes, one on each side of the head, that were attached to the mouthpiece. Designed with three chambers to reduce pressure: one high, one ambient pressure and one low pressure, it emitted the bubbles through the ambient pressure chamber located behind the diver's head, without hindering vision at any time.
Some information of interest:
- In 1948, Fréderic Dumas managed to dive to 93 meters.
- In 1957, the Spanish Eduardo Admetlla descended with an open circuit team to 100 meters in Cartagena (Spain).
- The first man to dive under perennial ice was the Frenchman Louis Lourmais.
- In 1959, three Italian divers, Olgiani, Noveli and Falcó, descended with compressed air to 130 meters.
To date, many men have broken these records. The current depth record for autonomous diving is 285 meters by North American Jim Bowden.
