|
|
Deepseawaters
Home Deep
Sea FunScuba
Diving
Scuba Diving
 People
have strong attention in going beneath the sea for centuries.
Ancient script coins ntadelineation of early divers. Century
old artifacts imply that people dove for materials for jewelry
such as pearls. Greek literature refers to early sponge divers.
Herodotus (500 B.C.) tells the story of Scyllis, a Greek sailor,
who used a reed to breathe as he cut the mooring lines of
Persian ships. This interest pushed people to develop ever-improving
methods of staying underwater for longer periods of time and
at ever increasing depths.
Men and women have
practiced breath-hold diving for centuries. Indirect evidence
comes from thousand-year-old undersea artifacts found on land
(e.g., mother-of-pearl ornaments), and depictions of divers
in ancient drawings. In ancient Greece breath-hold divers
are known to have hunted for sponges and engaged in military
exploits. Of the latter, the story of Scyllis (sometimes spelled
Scyllias; about 500 BC) is possibly the most celebrated. As
told by the 5th century BC historian Herodotus (and quoted
in numerous modern texts).
The aspiration to go underneath water has probably always
existed: to hunt for food, uncover artifacts, repair ships
(or sink them!), and perhaps just to observe marine life.
Until humans found a way to breathe under water, however,
each dive was necessarily short and frantic.
Under water we can Breathing through a hollow reed allowed
the body to be submerged, but it must have become perceptible
right away that reeds more than two ft long do not work well;
impenetrability inhaling against water pressure effectively
limits snorkel length. Breathing from an air-filled bag brought
under water was also tried, but it failed due to rebreathing
of carbon dioxide.
In the 16th century
people began to use diving bells complete with air from the
surface, most likely the first effective means of staying
under water for any length of time. The bell was held stationary
a few ft from the surface, its bottom open to water and its
top portion containing manner dense by the water pressure.
A diver standing upright would have his head in the air. He
could leave the bell for a minute or two to collect sponges
or explore the bottom, and then return for a short while until
air in the bell was no longer breathable.
In 16th century
England and France, full diving suits made of leather were
used to depths of 60 ft. Air was pumped down from the surface
with the aid of manual pumps. Soon helmets were made of metal
to withstand even greater water pressure and divers went deeper.
By the 1830s the surface-supplied air helmet was perfected
well enough to allow extensive salvage work.
Starting
in the 19th century, two main avenues of investigation - one
scientific, the other technologic - greatly accelerated underwater
exploration. Scientific research was advanced by the work
of Paul Bert and John Scott Haldane, from France and Scotland,
respectively. Their studies helped explain effects of water
pressure on the body, and also define safe limits for compressed
air diving. At the same time, improvements in technology -
compressed air pumps, carbon dioxide scrubbers, regulators,
etc., made it possible for people to stay under water for
long periods.
|
