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Have you ever wondered what it would be like to swim with the fish and explore the underwater jungle that covers two-thirds of the earth's surface? I have always been interested in water activities; swimming, diving and skiing, and I felt that scuba was for me. My first dive took place while on a family vacation. I came across a dive shop offering introductory dives, which immediately caught my interest.
After much convincing (my parents), with my solemn assurance that I would be careful, I was allowed to participate in a dive. I was ready, or so I thought. The slim basics such as breathing were explained and I was literally tossed in. Sounds easy enough, right! , well WRONG! ! . From the moment I hit the water, my experience was much less than fun. I quickly sank to the bottom into a new world, with unfamiliar dangers.
I really wasn't ready for this experience. I was disorientated, causing me to panic, which shortened the length of my dive, not to mention my air supply. Let's just say I would not do that again. To start exploring the underwater world, one must first master a few skills.
Certification is the first step of learning to dive. From qualified professionals one must learn how to use the equipment, safety precautions, and the best places to dive. This paper is designed to help give a general understanding of the sport and the importance that physics plays in it. Self- contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus, or SCUBA for short, is a hell of a lot of fun. However, there is considerably more to Diving than just putting on a wetsuit and strapping some compressed air onto ones back.
As I quickly learned, diving safely requires quite a bit more in terms of time, effort, and preparation. When one goes underwater, a diver is introduced to a new and unfamiliar world, where many dangers exist, but can be avoided with proper lessons and understanding. With this knowledge the water is ours to discover. The Evolution of Scuba Diving Divers have penetrated the oceans through the centuries for the purpose of acquiring food, searching for treasure, carrying out military operations, performing scientific research and exploration, and enjoying the aquatic environment.
Bachrach (1982) identified the following five principal periods in the history of diving which are currently in use. Free (or breath-hold) diving, bell diving, surface support or helmet (hard hat) diving, scuba diving, and, saturation diving or atmospheric diving (Ketels, 4) SCUBA DIVING The development of self-contained underwater breathing apparatus provided the free moving diver with a portable air supply which, although finite in comparison with the unlimited air supply available to the helmet diver, allowed for mobility. Scuba diving is the most frequently used mode in recreational diving and, in various forms, is also widely used to perform underwater work for military, scientific, and commercial purposes. There were many steps in the development of a successful self-contained underwater system. In 1808, Frederick yon Drieberg invented a bellows-in-a-box device that was worn on the diver's back and delivered compressed air from the surface. This device, named Triton, did not actually work but served to suggest that compressed air could be used in diving, an idea initially conceived of by Halley in 1716. (Ketels, 9) In 1865, two French inventors, Rouquayrol and Denayrouse, developed a suit that they described as 'self-contained. ' In fact, their suit was not self contained but consisted of a helmet-using surface-supported system that had an air reservoir that was carried on the diver's back and was sufficient to provide one breathing cycle on demand.
The demand valve regulator was used with surface supply largely because tanks of adequate strength were not yet available to handle air at high pressure. This system's demand valve, which was automatically controlled, represented a major breakthrough because it permitted the diver to have a breath of air when needed. The Rouquayrol and Denayrouse apparatus was described with remarkable accuracy in Jules Verne's classic, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, which was written in 1869, only 4 years after the inventors had made their device public (Ketels, 10). Semi-Self-Contained Diving Suit The demand valve played a critical part in the later development of one form of scuba apparatus. In the 1920 's, a French naval officer, Captain Yves Le Prieur, began work on a self-contained air diving apparatus that resulted in 1926 in the award of a patent, shared with his countryman Fernez.
This device was a steel cylinder containing compressed air that was worn on the diver's back and had an air hose connected to a mouthpiece. The diver wore a nose clip and air-tight goggles that undoubtedly were protective and an aid to vision but did not permit pressure equalization. The major problem with Le Prieur's apparatus was the lack of a demand valve, which necessitated a continuous flow (and thus waste) of gas. In 1943, almost 20 years after Fernez and Le Prieur patented their apparatus, two other French inventors, Emile Gagnan and Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau, demonstrated their 'Aqua Lung. ' This apparatus used a demand intake valve drawing from two or three cylinders, each containing over 2500 psig. Thus it was that the demand regulator, invented over 70 years earlier by Rouquayrol and Denayrouse and extensively used in aviation, came into use in a self-contained breathing apparatus which did not emit a wasteful flow of air during inhalation (although it continued to lose exhaled gas into the water). This application made possible the development of modern open-circuit air scuba gear (Ketels, 11).
In 1939, Dr. Christian Lambertsen began the development of a series of three patented forms of oxygen re breathing equipment for neutral buoyancy underwater swimming. This became the first self-contained underwater breathing apparatus successfully used by a large number of divers. The Lambertsen Amphibious Respiratory Unit (LARU) formed the basis for the establishment of U. S. military self-contained diving.
This apparatus was designated scuba (for self- contained underwater breathing apparatus) by its users. Equivalent self- contained apparatus was used by the military forces of Italy, the United States, and Great Britain during World War II and continues in active use today. (Ketels, 12). A major development in regard to mobility in diving occurred in France during the 1930 's: Commander de Carlieu developed a set of swim fins, the first to be produced since Borelli designed a pair of claw-like fins in 1680. When used with Le Prieur's tanks, goggles, and nose clip, de Carlieu's fins enabled divers to move...
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Research essay sample on The Physics Of Scuba Diving Swimming With Fish
