Scuba diving has a long history behind it, but as far as the modern style of scuba diving is in question, World War II was the driving force behind what we now know as scuba diving.

Since time immemorial man has been diving in to the water to fend for food. This quest has been recorded in history and in all likelihood it goes back even beyond that. However, the history of scuba diving should actually sate from the time, man started using artificial means to supply air o the diver. Way back in 1535 Guglielmo de Loreno built the very first true diving bell. This bell used the simple principle of tapped air inside its very own body. In this mechanism, there was no way in which on could replenish the air supply and as a result the diving time was limited.

During this time, air pumps were being perfected and before long these two discoveries were merged to make the very first diving bell where the air could be replenished by the pumps. This device was perfected in 1691 by Edmund Halley. These diving methods were used for the exploration of the wrecks and also for salvage operations. Over the next hundred of years the underwater advances continued and these advances included the building of the first submarine.

In the later half of the 18th century, various types of sealed helmets were developed and they were later attached to the full diving suits. The best part about these suits was that these suits could be supplied with compressed air with the help of pipes from the air pumps on the surface. In fact by the year 1843, the British Royal Navy had established a diving school. The next stage was the use of tanks of compressed air that the diver carried to get air replenishment during the dive.

The effect of decomposition was first made by Robert Boyle. This observation was made as back as 1667 when he observed a gas bubble in the eye of a snake that was compressed and decompresses rapidly. Over the years there was more of research done on this subject and it later came to be known as ?bends? or decomposition sickness. This has been a limiting factor in deciding the depth to which the diver could ascend until and unless he was able to return to the surface very slowly and was able to avoid rapid decomposition.

During the World War II, Italian drivers planted explosive devices on British ships, using masks, fins, and self contained breathing devices. Thus we can see that the modern day scuba diving was actually born in the midst of a war. It was during this period that Emile Gagnan and Jacques ?Yves Cousteau, who was a French naval officer, developed the first true Aqualung. This device, the aqua lung, allowed compressed air to be breathed in at a controlled rate and then exhaled in to the water even today, aqua lung is the most basic gear of scuba divers.