A brief history of diving Essay

For those who heap swim, plunk in the sense of aqualung nose plump down or deep ocean fall event is currently cardinal of the most enjoyable pastimes a person can have. Like anything else, it has its pleasures and its run a risks, yet the aloneure of the sea is certainly a major intermit in the life of any avid birdbrain. Still, diving has its risks and perhaps in nigh sense those risks atomic number 18 great than in other endeavors. The allure of the sea and the desire to enjoy it as freely as a seek is irresistible to many.Our fascination with the oceans whitethorn have make diving hot in the 19th century, just now if so, it was certainly made more fashionable by the introduction of aqualung equipment in the middle of the 20th century. notwithstanding the relatively recent victimisation of deep sea diving tool and of scuba diving, men and women have been diving for centuries. Often diving is for pleasure, barely at other times it is just another basic e xcerpt skill to gather food, hunt for sponges (Hong et al. , 1991) or engage in troops endeavors or otherwise.Until the invention of diving equipment, man was unable to go submersed and breathe submerged for any extended effect of time. His stay below water was limited by his ability to hold his breath so the problem was how to extend the amount of time submerged and, of course, the obvious answer was to find a means to provide an pass about supply to a submerged person. In August of last year (2006) while testing the Navys new Atmospheric go down System (ADS) turn off the coast of La Jolla CA, a village of San Diego, Daniel Jackson, a maritime Reserve Diver, made the deepest free dive in tarradiddle, a essence of 2,000 feet. (Guinness, 2006)Perhaps it is because of the allure of the sea, but long before Jackson, men and women right breath-holding. come down has many useful purposes such as gathering and providing food, soldiers, recreational, explore and others s o these factors have no doubt added to the allure of diving. Despite the relatively new advent of scuba equipment and deep sea diving equipment, diving has been around for a long time. Of course, it is necessary to hold aces breath in order to go to any great insight and people have been apply breath-holding techniques for diving for centuries.In ancient Greece, different held their breath to search for sponges as some people do today, and throughout history some had through likewise in the process of military exploits. For those who wanted to stay semiaquatic long-dated, the obvious question was how to do so? One solution was to breathe through hollering reeds while submerged. objet dart this technique worked, there were limitations that prohibited it from being a valuable solution. Reeds longitudinal than two feet long do not work well. Today we support that it is difficult to inhale against water pressure below a certain perspicacity.Another idea was to put subscribe r line into a bag that could be utilize underwater, but that similarly wassailed problems, most significantly the fact that it caused divers(prenominal) to breathe in the light speed dioxide that had been exhaled. Although Aristotle wrote about a diving door cost in the 4th century BC, all diving was probably done by holding the breath up until the 16th century. (Brylske, 1994 Somers, 1997) Whatever diving was done probably did not exceed profoundnesss of 100 feet if that much. The diving tam-tam was the predominant diving apparatus during the 22 centuries from the 4th century BC until the around 1800.Using this stationary dodge, divers could get channelize from the bell and leave to do whatever they were doing underwater returning to the bell sporadically for more occupation. This abideed divers to remain underwater until manner in the bell was no longer breathable. By the 16th century, people began experimenting with diving bells. (Somers, 1997) These were in reali ty bell shaped contraptions open at the bottom that were held a some feet from the surface. The diver could enter from the bottom which was open to water and the top part held compressed straining, transmission line that had been compressed by the water pressure.Early designs of the diving bell were refined in the late 1600s and became sizable and sophisticated by 1691 when Edmund Halley patented a ventilated diving bell that allowed divers to remain underwater for as much as an hour and a half. (Gilliam and von Maier, 1992) plane though electricity was not available for electric pumps at that time, manual(a) pumps were used that could pump air from the surface down to divers as early as the 16th century in Europe. However, at greater depths, water pressure became a concern, so metal helmets and leather good diving suits were developed and used to protect divers who went below 60 feet.This diving equipment was continuously perfected up to the 19th and 20th centuries. By the 18 30s, diving techniques that relied on air pumped to divers from the surface had been sufficiently well developed as to allow divers to work underwater for extended conclusions of time. Although these early techniques worked, they didnt entirely compensate for some diving concerns. Eventually, the improved technology of the 19th century resulted in compressed air pumps, regulators, snow dioxide scrubbers and other improvements that allowed divers to remain underwater for longer and longer arrests of time.As diving techniques improved, it became more apparent that there were at least two concerns in diving to depth. One, of course, was the sine qua non for an air supply that would communicate the need to hold ones breath. The other problem was the need to compensate for depth. (Brylske, 1994 Somers, 1997) In 1905 Scotlands John Scott Haldane reported the fundamental breakthrough that breathing is regulated by the amount of carbon dioxide in the pedigree and in the brain. Haldan e developed a method of decompression in stages that allowed marine divers to ascend to the surface safely, information used for todays decompression charts.His work and that of the French physiologist Paul Bert increased our understanding of the physiologic effects of air-pressure sufficiently to improve out companionship of the hazards of diving to depth and how to overcome those hazards. Our understanding of the effects and safe limits of employ compressed air for diving is due largely to the work of Haldane and Bert. (Gilliam and von Maier, 1992) Today, we realize that decompression, recompression, carbon dioxide and group O toxicity are important factors to consider in diving. Diving history can essentially be divided into four periods.Initially, there was the period of free diving when humans held their breath. Diving time and diving skill were limited by the availability of air, the build-up of carbon dioxide and the effects at depth of pressure on the body. (Gilliam and von Maier, 1992) Later advances in diving during the second period of diving history led to the creation of heavy walled diving vessels which could exercise their internal glory to that of sea level (1 atmosphere) so as to obstruct the ring water pressure from being a hazard to the occupants.Diving bells and bathysphere are two such devices. Bathyspheres are essentially unpowered hollow steel balls that can be lowered from a mother channelize by a steel cable. A bathyscaphe is a is bathysphere with a perkiness control that eliminates the need for a cable. Then there is the submarine, a powered device with its own air supply and which is built so that it can handle all of the problems associated with depth and so it can get going great distances in any direction under its own power.Bathyspheres, bathyscaphes and submarines undeniable a means to maintain the pressure at one atmosphere around the diver and a means to provide fresh oxygen while getting rid of exhaled carbon di oxide. Carbon dioxide was eliminated by using soda lime, lithium hydroxide and other compounds that take up the carbon dioxide. Later during this period, one atmosphere diving suits were also developed that were malleable and yet able to withstand pressures at great death so as to allow divers to work at depths up to several(prenominal) hundred meters for hours. (Somers, 1997) Diving entered a period of using compressed air next.The air could be supplied from the surface and delivered to the diver at depth. The hand-operated air compressor was a major advancement in diving history. It had appeared by 1770 and allowed for the cultivation of helmet-hose diving organizations that were the predominant diving techniques from 1800 until the mid-1950s. Unlike then final period, during this period of diving the diver is separated from his/her air supply, but has air delivered through a long umbilical cord to a regulator and oral cavity carried by the diver. At great depth, the diver can be enwrap in a dive suit that can handle the water pressure at depth.These suits can be cumbersome but the buoyancy of the water can relieve some of their burden. Although diving masks with a regulator, rima oris and hose may come to mind when one considers these devices, caissons are also included in this category. Caissons are huge spaces that are supplied with compressed air. Diving bells and rigid helmet diving suits are also grouped in this category. The air that the diver breathes is at the same pressure as that of the water surrounding the diver thus leaving him at risk for decompression concerns such as the bends, air embolism, etc. pon their ascent if they ascend too fast.To embolden with this concern, special mixtures of waste are used that allow divers to dive deeper than with compressed air. These gas mixtures combine oxygen with another gas or gases such as hydrogen, helium and/or nitrogen. (Somers, 1997 Gilliam and von Maier, 1992) The most recent nurture in divin g is diving with compressed air or gas mixtures that include oxygen carried by the diver. This is referred to by the acronym S. C. U. B. A. which is generally referred to as scuba diving.Scuba stands for self contained underwater breathing apparatus and refers to the fact that the diver carries his or her air supply on their back while diving. Although we may view scuba gear to be a recent development in diving technology, the development of scuba gear can be traced back to 1680 when Borelli, who also experimented with fins and buoyancy compensation, developed a device found on the theory that the hot air a diver exhales could be rejuvenated by cooling and condensing in. (Somers, 1997) Although Borellis gear failed, it still represents a step forward in diving theory and technology.By the premier third of the nineteenth century, Condert published a scuba design using a helmet and a compressed air reservoir that fit around the divers waist. In 1865, Rouquayrol developed a surface- supplied regulator system that did ultimately have an effect on todays scuba gear. By 1878, Fleuss and Davis developed a closed-circuit oxygen scuba device that used chemical carbon dioxide as absorbent. (Gilliam and von Maier, 1992 Somers, 1997) The scuba equipment commonly used today was developed by Emile Gagnan and Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Somers, 1997 Cousteau, 1986 Marx, 1990) The two principle types of scuba equipment are open circuit and closed circuit equipment. Open circuit equipment vents the discontinue air into the water while closed circuit systems all the carbon dioxide to be absorbed and add more oxygen so that the air can be re-used. Scuba divers are at risk for decompression problems if they ascend too fast and various gas mixtures allow scuba divers to go deeper than with compressed air. Scuba diving has a number of advantages over other forms of diving.The tanks allow the diver to remain underwater longer than would be possible by simply holding ones breath. Even though scuba allows divers to go deeper than with dive and allows them more freedom than would be possible using compressed air from the surface, its major disadvantage is that the time spent underwater is limited by the amount of compressed air in the tanks. Since time is of essence and all muscle activity decreases the amount of time that oxygen pull up stakes be available, scuba divers can increase the amount of time they will have underwater with scuba gear if they exert less vigor while diving.Although most divers swim underwater while diving, they can resort to propulsion devices referred to as Diver Propulsion Vehicles (DPVs) commonly called scooters to choke underwater. The term SCUBA originally referred to rebreathers used by the military for underwater warfare but today it generally refers to open-circuit equipment. However, rebreathers are also classified as scuba gear. The history of diving is certainly to complex and elicit to cover in these few pages, but what fe w comments have been presented do demonstrate how rich that history is and how far it extends back in time. yet by considering how far back into history diving extends and the advances diving has made with the passage of time will we truly realize the fascination diving has held for us through time. Perhaps the next great advance in diving will not be man growing gills, but whatever it will be will only add to the present fascination and allure of diving. We can only build on the futurity of diving by understanding how we arrived at our present level of knowledge and technology.