People have been putting their faces in the sea for a very long time, and almost always for the same two reasons: to find supper and to find treasure. The first divers were ancient folk hunting food, pebbles, coral, and pearls, holding one good breath and trusting their luck. It was a hard way to make a living, and a wet one, but it started everything.
The ancients get organized
By the time of the Greeks and Romans, this breath holding had turned semi commercial, with marine salvage and sponge diving becoming proper trades. Commercial diving most likely began in ancient Greece, and we have witnesses no less grand than Plato and Homer, who mention sponges put to use. The island of Kalymnos was a famous center of sponge diving in those old days, and its divers could go deep on a single lungful. Military diving, meanwhile, goes back to early wars such as the Peloponnesian, and folks dived for sport and pleasure too, because some things never change.
The trouble with breathing
The great obstacle, of course, was air. A man can do remarkable things underwater right up until he needs to breathe, at which point his ambitions tend to shorten. The diving bell brought the first real relief in the 16th and 17th centuries, trapping air for the diver below. Then came helmets fed with air from above, which were later improved into waterproof kits for the diver's comfort and safety.
The breakthrough
After the 1700s, divers grew hungry to stay under longer, and they tinkered toward devices that would let them rebreathe their air. The puzzle resisted for a long while. A fully working rebreathing device arrived in the 1940s, and here the story reaches its hero. Jacques Cousteau and the engineer Emile Gagnan built the apparatus that finally gave divers a dependable breath and a sense of safety, and people began heading for the water by the thousand. It is fair to call that the turning point, the moment diving stopped being a feat of endurance and started being an invitation.
Your turn in the story
Every diver alive is the latest chapter of this long, damp tale. If you would like to add yourself to it, find verified dive centers and instructors on Live is Dive, compare them, and write to the center direct. No middleman, no commission, just you and a few thousand years of company.
History of Diving: FAQ
Who invented scuba diving?
The modern Aqua-Lung was developed in the 1940s by Jacques Cousteau and the engineer Emile Gagnan.
When was scuba diving invented?
The first dependable open-circuit gear, the Aqua-Lung, arrived in the 1940s, though diving itself is thousands of years old.
Where did sponge diving begin?
In the ancient Mediterranean. The Greek island of Kalymnos was a famous sponge-diving center.
What was a diving bell?
An early device of the 16th and 17th centuries that trapped air for a diver working below the surface.
Want to start your own chapter? Find verified dive centers and instructors on Live is Dive. Browse dive centers.
Photos via Wikimedia Commons: standard diving dress, NARA (public domain); Halley’s diving bell by Louis Figuier (public domain); 1873 engraving, Illustrated London News (public domain). Video: History of Simple Things (YouTube).