Los Carter, age 13, of Beaumont, Tex., for his question:
HAS MAN BEEN DEEP SEA DIVING LONG?
Man has been fascinated for a long time with the activities that go on below the sea's surface. It was more than 400 years ago, back in 1538, that two Greeks made the first successful deep sea dive.
The two Greek inventors demonstrated their diving bell for Emperor Charles V in Toledo, Spain. They crawled into a large metal "kettle," which they turned upside down on a wooden platform, and had the kettle lowered into the water. Inside the kettle, which trapped enough air for the pair to breathe on their short trip below the water's surface, the Greeks also burned a lamp. The dive was a success.
A crude diving suit was used in 1665 in an attempt to recover treasure from ships of the Spanish Armada that had sunk in 1588 off the coast of Scotland. Only a few cannon were raised, however.
An English scientist named Sir Edmund Halley invented a diving bell in 1580 that was made of wood strips bound with metal. It was open at the bottom and kept in an upright position with weights. A glass window at the top allowed light to enter.
Halley and four other men stayed under water for an hour and a half in water that was 54 feet deep. Weighted casks of air were dropped down to them and they added to their air supply by drawing the casks into the bell and then letting the air out within the bell.
An improved diving bell was made in 1778 by an inventor named John Smeaton, and in the years that followed, many other successful bells were built and demonstrated.
Although a number of early diving suits were built and used, the first one that could properly be called useful was invented in 1797 by a German scientist named K.H. Klingert. Tin and leather were used in its construction. It covered the diver from his head to his waist. The bottom part was left open for used air to escape; air in the head piece kept the water out.
Twenty years after Klingert, an inventor named Augustus Siebe came up with a suit that had a copper helmet and shoulder plate attached to a waterproof jacket that reached to the hips. Later models also enclosed the feet. If the diver didn't stand up straight using Klingert's equipment, the water would rush into the suit and drown him. This couldn't happen with Siebe's suit.
Siebe's suit was the forerunner of the modern diving suit.
Modern diving suits are made of flexible waterproof material for shallow dives, or of rigid armor weighing as much as 350 pounds for deep sea diving to greater depths.
In the modern diving suit, air lines extend from the helmet to an air pump on shore or aboard a ship. The helmet also has a built in two way radio. A weighted belt and weighted shoes keep the diver's feet down.