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The question: Who built and invented the first scuba system? There are a few possible candidates - Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Emile Gagnan, Charles Condert, and Sieur Freminet. Each one has their own merits and shortcomings, but these men are credited with making the system possible. Let's take a closer look at these men and their contribution to the underwater environment and popularity of Scuba diving.
Jacques-Yves Cousteau was a French explorer, who in the 1950s converted a minesweeper into a floating laboratory. He then set out on expeditions to explore the world's oceans, from the Red Sea to Antarctica. His love of the oceans took a new dimension during the Second World War, when he and his family sought refuge in Megeve, near the Swiss border. Throughout the war, Cousteau continued his underwater experiments. He also teamed up with another explorer, Emile Gagnan, a Frenchman who shared Cousteau's enthusiasm for the sea. They developed an underwater breathing apparatus and a compass that enabled them to navigate the deep seas.
After graduating from high school, Cousteau enrolled in the French navy. He hoped to become a naval aviator, and went on to complete a world tour. But a fatal car accident prevented his dream of flying. He instead went to sea to explore the ocean floor. He spent countless hours underwater and eventually built a breathing system that allowed him to dive deeper and longer.
A century ago, Emile Gagnan and Jacques Cousteau began research on an underwater breathing system. They were both scientists and engineers who were interested in the underwater environment and had a strong desire to explore it. In 1947, they emigrated to Montreal, Canada, where they worked at a company called Canadian Liquid Air Ltd. and developed a range of technologies that are still the basis for today's SCUBA equipment. Cousteau was a world-renowned environmental activist and pioneer in deep-sea exploration, and was a great inspiration for the Aqualung.
The Aqua-Lung was a device that was first used by Jacques Cousteau in 1943. During the war, Cousteau tested the first underwater breathing system at a beach in the Riviera. Captain Yves Le Prieur had developed a compressed air device in 1925, but Gagnan found that he needed a continuous supply of air to use the system. Unfortunately, the Germans requisitioned automobile gas and Gagnan invented a demand regulator to feed cooking gas into the carburetor of an automobile.
The first scuba system was built by the Englishman John Lethbridge in 1715. Lethbridge developed an underwater diving machine that he called the "scuba set." However, his apparatus required surface tenders to deploy and unfurl. As a result, his equipment was not self-contained and he had to rely on other divers to do it for him. However, the development of the scuba set would revolutionize diving and make it possible for divers to explore the ocean depths without a surface tender.
The invention of the scuba system goes into the hands of many people. In 1867, the surface pump that was first used for the purpose of breathing underwater is commercially produced. The rebreather works on the same principle as modern scuba systems - a diver breathes air through a membrane-controlled "demand valve."
Scuba diving has roots in ancient Greece, where Aristotle described the process of diving as a "problematum," a simple book about the art of deep water exploration. Sea sponge pickers used diving bells to rebreathe underwater, but this method had many limitations. The French inventor Sieur Freminet developed the first self-contained scuba apparatus in 1772. The scuba apparatus recirculates air from the diving bell, making it possible for a diver to breathe underwater for longer periods of time.
In 1772, a Frenchman named Sieur Freminet invented a rebreathing apparatus that recycled air exhaled from a barrel into a cylinder. He built the first self-contained apparatus, and he died in 1772 from lack of oxygen. Today, SCUBA systems are used for technical diving and deep ocean exploration. They are available in closed-circuit and semi-closed-circuit versions.
