Diving bell and diving suit
Campana de buceo con renovación de aire y escafandra
- Date
- 1691 (campana) / c. 1715 (escafandra de Lethbridge) · confidence high
- Place
- London, England (Halley); Lake Nemi (Lorena, 1535)
- Credited to
- Guglielmo de Lorena (1535), Edmund Halley (1691), John Lethbridge (1715)
- People
- 👤 Edmond Halley1656–1742👤 John Lethbridge1675–1759
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A weighted wooden bell to which Halley sent fresh air in weighted barrels, allowing more than an hour to be spent at 18 m; Lethbridge built a leather-and-wood cylinder with sleeves for working underwater. They opened up wreck salvage and underwater engineering.
Credit is disputed between Halley (Royal Society) and Lethbridge; there is also Lorena's bell of 1535 and Sturmius's (1671), as well as Drebbel's submarine (Thames, 1620).
What it led to
- The salvage of sunken galleon cargoes as a business (Phips, 1687)
- Underwater foundation work for bridges and harbours
- The physiology of pressure and air
Built on
- Vacuum pump (air pump)1650
- Aristotle's and Lorena's diving bell
- Leather barrels and hoses