Leonardo da Vinci designed a diving suit for a person to breathe and operate underwater.
His notes from the early sixteenth century describe equipment including a mask, breathing tubes, and a method for keeping the tubes near the surface. The suit was associated with a proposed underwater mission against enemy ships. The design also included a bag or container intended to collect urine, reflecting Leonardo’s attention to practical bodily needs during a prolonged dive.
Leonardo’s idea was not a scuba system in the modern sense. It depended on air supplied from the surface, and the materials and pressure-control technology of the period would have made deep or extended dives dangerous.
The design is often confused with later diving apparatus developed by inventors such as John Lethbridge and Augustus Siebe. Leonardo’s contribution was a conceptual underwater breathing system, not a documented working commercial suit.