Marine Biology History Timeline

Important Events

Leonardo Davinci

1500

He designs the first known scuba which has an air supply system and buoyancy control system

Giovanni Borelli

1679

Imagined a scuba design that recycles and replenishes air. Was the first to envision a free swimming scuba diver

Edmond Halley

1690

Is credited for staying submerged for 19 minutes in a diving bell he designed

John Lethbridge

1715

Developed a diving engine. Divers used this device with success to collect samples from the sea bottom

Karl Heinrich Klingert

1797

Develops a self contained open diving helmet that contains a double hose used for inhaling and exhaling pressurized air

Charles Anthony Deane and John Deane

1823

Developed the open diving helmet and successfully used it to recover items from the seabed

William James

1825

Makes the first practical proposal for a SCUBA (self contained diving apparatus).

Augustus Siebe

1840

Produced a closed "watertight" diving apparatus, that will become the worlds standard for the next 100 years

Henry Fleuess

1878

Invents the first practical diving apparatus that recirculates and replaces oxygen consumed by the diver

Lewis Boutan

1898

Takes the first underwater photographs

Professor John Scott Haldene

1907

Develops the first decompression model and tables for the prevention of decompression sickness in divers

Titanic

1912

The famous ocean liner Titanic sinks on her maiden voyage

Neufeldt Kuhnke

1913

Produced a 1 atmosphere suit which is essentially a submarine worn by a diver

Lewis De Corlieu

1933

Receives the first European patent for swimming propellers which are "swim fins", that same year he receives and american patent

Victor Berge

1941

Develops a mask breathing system used by US navy at Pearl Harbor and during WWII

Conrad Limbaugh

1950

Forms a scientific diving team at Scripts Institution of Oceanography in California. This is the first attempt at creating a marine biology programs to use scuba for aquatic research

Augusta Piccard and Jacques Piccard

1954

With a new type of vessel called the bathyscaphe exceeded Bartons 1948 diving record by reaching 13,287 feet deep

George Bond

1964

The U.S navy launches the SEALAB program a series or project for organisms living on the sea floor

Phil Nuytten

1984

Introduces the Newt Suit which is the next generation dive suit. It provides more mobility than any other designs

NASA

2003

They began research that suggests that the supply of large fish in the seas has diminished by 90% since 1950