Leonardo da Vinci sketched a diving suit for allowing divers to breathe underwater.
His design included a mask, breathing tubes, and an air supply arrangement intended for underwater exploration. The concept is described in Leonardo’s notebooks from the early sixteenth century. It was associated with military or engineering possibilities, including approaching ships beneath the surface.
The apparatus was not scuba equipment in the modern technical sense. Modern scuba sets use a pressurized tank and a regulator that delivers air at a pressure suitable for the diver’s depth. Leonardo’s concept depended on air being supplied from above through tubes or related equipment, which would have created practical limits and safety problems.
The design is also connected with Leonardo’s broader studies of water, breathing, and underwater motion. Whether he built or tested a complete working suit is not established by surviving evidence, so the sketch should be treated as an invention concept rather than a documented operational device.