From birth, man carries the weight of gravity on his shoulders. He is bolted to earth. But man has only to sink beneath the surface and he is free.

— Jacques Cousteau

We humans are curious and adventurous by nature. It’s this thrill of adventure and curiosity that led Edmund Hillary to summit Mount Everest, Amelia Earhart to fly solo across the Atlantic, and George W. Gibbs Jr. to become the first African-American to set foot on Antarctica. It’s also for this same reason that humans began to explore the world below sea. For thousands of years, man had only been able to explore the sea as deeply as he dare go on his own breath of air. However, that all soon changed.

The following is a list of many inventions that ultimately changed the world of underwater exploration and contributed to the sport of scuba diving today.

In the 1400s, Persians invented the first recorded goggles by polishing pieces of tortoise shells.

During the 1500s, one of the first diving bells was created in order to allow humans to go underwater on more than one breath. Think of something like this:

By 1771, John Smeaton invented the air pump which allowed for fresh air to be pumped down to the diving bells. Before this time, divers were only able to stay in the diving bells until it it ran out of breathable oxygen.

In 1772, Sieur Freminet invented the first self-contained underwater breathing device by creating a device that recycled the exhaled air from inside of the diving bell.

In 1839, James Eliot and Alexand McAvity created “a device carried on the diver’s back containing a quantity of condensed oxygen gas”- effectively creating the first scuba tank.

In 1873, the first real mobile diving suit (animated below) was created by Benoît Rouquayrol and Auguste Denayrouze which supplied a much safer supply of air. Before this suit was invented, many suits were were metallic, bulky, and heavy.

In 1942, Emile Gagnan and Jacques Cousteau created the modern-day regulator (the device divers use to breathe out of) and created the present-day scuba giant, Aqua Lung.

By the 1960s, the buoyancy compensator (a vest worn by divers that help them sink or float) was invented.

It’s because of all these inventions over the past few hundred years that allows us to so effortlessly and so fully enjoy the world of scuba diving today. So now that you know the story behind what started this great sport, why not learn about how you can get started in this great sport today!