Leonardo da Vinci designed a diving suit to let a person breathe underwater.
His early-sixteenth-century concept included a sealed suit, a mask, and breathing tubes connected to a floating structure at the surface. The tubes were intended to carry air down to the diver while keeping water out. The design was associated with plans for underwater military operations near Venice.
Leonardo’s suit was not the same as modern scuba equipment. It depended on surface-supplied air and did not use a compressed-air cylinder carried by the diver. There is also no reliable evidence that Leonardo or his contemporaries built and used the complete suit successfully.
The idea is nevertheless significant in diving history because it addressed the basic engineering problems of underwater breathing, waterproof clothing, and communication with the surface. Modern diving suits and breathing systems developed through later advances in materials, pumps, air compression, and pressure control.