REGULATOR

Building on existing designs, in 1943, Jacques-Yves Cousteau and engineer Émilie Gagnan unveiled a remarkably simple breathing device that freed the diver from both the surface and the seafloor

In many ways, it is the regulator that is at the heart of the invention of modern scuba. Ages ago, people used whatever they could dream up to spend more time underwater than the human body can manage on its own. In 500 BC for instance, a Greek soldier is said to have used a simple hollow reed as a snorkel to breathe underwater for hours. Centuries later, Aristotle wrote that Alexander the Great used a barrel to hide beneath the waterline during the Siege of Tye, in 332 BC, marking the birth of the diving bell. By 1864, French engineer Benoît Rouquayrol and Navy officer Auguste Denayrouze had adapted their mining rescue device for diving, and coined the term “regulator”. However, the diver was still tethered to the surface and had to walk on the seafloor.

Building on existing designs, in 1943, Jacques-Yves