DIVE HISTORIAN PRESENTATION

Test Your Knowledge

1. Who was the first recorded diver and why did he dive?
2. What well known artist had sketches for underwater diving in his notebooks and what did they consist of?
3. What is a diving bell and what was its significance with respect to the "Warship Vasa"?
4. What is the "Aerophore", who invented it, and from what was it derived?
5. Whose work is considered the foundation of the diving tables and what effect did this work have on underwater diving?
6. Who was Gagnan, what did he invent and what was his invention derived from?
7. How did Jaques-Yves Cousteau get involved with the scuba unit?
8. What does the word SCUBA stand for and what did it originally consist of?
9. Who was Hannes Keller and what was his significance to the scuba world?
10. What does DEMA stand for?
11. What are the three more popular types of valves and what are the main differences?
12. When, and by who, was the first successful buoyancy compensator patented?
13. What movie and actress played a key role in the develpment of the clear silicon mask and why?
14. What do NAUI, NASDS, PADI, and SSI stand for?
15. Who is the best dive instructor in all the land (consequently, the same person who wrote the Dive Historian Specialty Course)?

A-1 Gilgamesh, a ruler of Uruk and the best known Sumerian hero, was the first recorded diver. His friend Enkidu helped him reject a marriage proposal and Enkidu was sentenced to death. Gilgamesh set out to find a plant that would give Enkidu mortality. It is recorded that Gilgamesh dove down to a cave deep below the surface to find a plant. Unfortunately the plant was eaten by a serpent.
A-2 Leonardo da Vinci had a blueprint for underwater diving apparatus in his notebooks. He had a range of drawings from tubes leading to floats at the surface to what is almost a complete self contained diving suit, with a mask to cover the nose and mouth which connected to an air reservoir on the diver's chest. Furthermore, he shows sandbags which were filled for ballast and an outlet for urination. He also has a sketch of a tube, or "schnorkel" used to breath air from the surface. He also had a sketch of webbed swimming gloves.
A-3 The diving bell was invented in the 1500's. Essentially, it is a metal bell which is submersed in water. Because of the physics of air pressure, the air within the bell keeps water from filling it, although it is compressed with increased pressure, allowing divers to submerge while in the bell. The bell's significance with respect to the Vasa is that it was used from 1663-64 by Hans Albrecht von Treileben and Andreas Peckell to recover the Vasa's bronze guns. The guns were later sold to Germany for a considerable amount of money.
A-4 The Aerophore (air bearer) was an underwater breathing suit, derived from W. H. Taylor's armored diving suit invented in 1838, that was comprised of the armored suit and a compressed air cylinder with a diaphragm operated demand regulator. The Aerophore was invented by Benoit Rouquayrol, a mining engineer, and Auguste Denayrouze, a naval lieutenant, in 1865.
A-5 In 1910, Haldane developed the idea of depth/time limits, which is still considered the foundational work of the dive tables as well as the dive computers. His work was very significant to underwater diving in that it gave divers a limit to follow which would greatly limit decompression sickness.
A-6 Gagnan was a famous French-Canadian gas engineer who invented a demand regulator for a wood burning charcoal gas generator used in the automobile industry of Europe during World War II.. Gagnan used the basic regulator of the 1800's and combined it with ideas from a butane regulating device and came up with the demand regulator for underwater breathing of compressed air.
A-7 He volunteered to test Gagnan's regulator. Eventually it became known as the Cousteau- Gagnan regulator. Cousteau's commander could not speak well in public and asked Cousteau to present the scuba unit to French Admirality in Paris.
A-8 The word SCUBA stands for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. It originally consisted of the Cousteau-Gagnan regulator and cylinders of compressed air with a regulator to adjust air pressure to the diver's needs. Also, rubber foot flippers and a diving mask were worn.
A-9 Hannes Keller was 26 year old Swiss mathematician who combined different gases that would allow a diver to dive incredibly deep. In 1962 he reached the depth of about 300 meters (1,000 feet) off the California coast, shattering all previous records.
A-10 Diving Equipment Manufacturers Association, founded in 1976.
A-11 The three types of valves are the "J", "K" and "R". "J" valves had a lever which, when pulled up, retained 300 - 500 psi of air. When the diver ran out of air, they simply switched the lever to down, and began to breath their reserve. If, however, the diver accidentally had his/her lever in the down position instead of the up position and they ran out of air, they were soon to employ the emergency ascent. The "R" valve had a reserve that, when in effect, made it difficult to get any air. The diver could reach to the cylinder and open the valve, but it was a difficult maneuver. The "K" valve, named after Walter Kidde Co. is the only one which has survived the passing of time.
A-12 Maurice Fenzy patented the first successful buoyancy compensator in 1961.
A-13 Jacqueline Bissett in "The Deep" needed a clear mask in order to get more light on her face. Prior to that, most masks were made out of black rubber. Most masks today use the clear silicone.
A-14 NAUI – National Association of Underwater Instructors
NASDS – National Association of Skin Diving Schools
PADI – Professional Association of Diving Instructors
SSI – Scuba Schools International
A-15 Bert U. Eriksson, instructor number 97792.