Humankind has always been enamored with ocean exploration. And not much was going to stop us from getting in the water and diving. These quirky early inventions enabled men to start plunging the depths as far back as 500 years ago.

Da Vinci Suit

Sixteenth-century smarty Leonardo sketched the first suit for venturing underwater, designing it to be crafted of leather. Tubes of cane would supply air from a surface unit. The polymath’s design included a pee pouch. Sadly, he never fashioned such a suit, although a replica can be seen in the London Science Museum.

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Carmagnolle Diving Helmet

The French brothers who built this suit in 1880 relied on metal to withstand pressure up to 180 feet. The helmet granted divers a wide field of vision thanks to 20 glass ports, each roughly the size of a baseball. One had to be unscrewed to allow the daring wearer to breathe while getting set up.

Submarine Diving Bell

This rigid chamber has origins tracing back to Aristotle in the fourth century BC. The idea was basic: a cauldron turned upside-down to trap air. Aristotle knew that so long as internal pressure is greater than external, the men inside a container can breathe normally. This concept was adapted, and has grown to include underwater habitats.

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Submarine Armor

Four hundred eighty pounds — that’s how much this 1910 first version of a metal diving suit weighed. And yet, this aluminum-alloy invention succeeded in carrying a diver to 212 feet in Long Island Sound. To modern divers, this container, a collection of joined barrels covering and supporting the limbs and joints, seems like a costume from a 1950s underwater sci-fi show.