Leonardo da Vinci’s underwater exploration design was a diving suit.
Leonardo described a diving apparatus in the Codex Atlanticus, generally dated to the early sixteenth century. The proposed suit used waterproof leather, a mask, and tubes extending above the water’s surface to provide air. Additional details included a bag for collecting urine and a system intended to help the diver operate underwater.
Leonardo associated the design with underwater military operations, especially the possibility of secretly damaging enemy ships. He worried that knowledge of such a device could be dangerous if widely revealed, which may explain why the idea was not openly developed into a working technology.
The concept was not a modern scuba system. The tubes could not reliably supply breathable air at significant depth, and the design lacked a compressed-air cylinder. Later underwater breathing equipment required advances in pressure control, valves, and materials. Leonardo’s suit is still historically important because it shows a remarkably early attempt to treat diving as an engineering problem involving waterproofing, breathing, buoyancy, and underwater tools.