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I have been postponing starting this series of articles for a long time. There is so much to write about that it took me a long time to decide where to start and what to talk about. Let's start with those who are ready; first scuba dive in history was with a rebreather!

This Sumerian figure from the 9th century AD allows us to see the diving system used by a military diver while going underwater during a war. The system attached to the diver's body in this image is thought to be an animal skin or tripe. The diver breathes through this "bag"; what is this if not a rebreather?

Although rebreather technology is not new, until recent years it was a system that was not used except for military diving or special commercial diving. Especially the development of electronic technologies and the branding of rebreather production, obtaining CE certificates and integrating them into training systems have made rebreather technology widespread. Of course, the increasing interest and trend in “technical diving” in recent years has also increased the interest in rebreathers. Although reasons such as effective reduction of gas consumption, minimization of heat loss, shortened deco times and silent diving make rebreather diving quite attractive, the increasing complexity and risk level have always created question marks in divers who want to focus on this field.

The concept of a rebreather was first put forward by Italian mathematician Giovanni Borelli in 1679. Borelli believed that when air was passed through a copper pipe surrounded by seawater and cooled by this water, condensation resulting from the temperature difference would filter out foreign substances and carbon dioxide. Although this thesis did not turn out to be true for the filtering of carbon dioxide in particular, it was the first scientifically sound idea to be put forward for the rebreathing of inhaled air.

The first working rebreather prototype was produced by Frenchman Pierre Aimable De Saint Simon Sicard in 1849. It was revised by Professor T. Schwann in 1853. It had a "scrubber" mechanism consisting of a large oxygen tube attached to the back and a sponge soaked in caustic soda. (Caustic Soda: The raw material of soap, also used in chemistry laboratories to capture acidic gases, is a chemical called Sodium Hydroxide - NaOH).

In 1878, Henry Fleuss produced the first rebreather device that could be used in practice. In 1880, it was used by Alexander Lambert, the chief diver of the Severn Tunnel, for a distance of 300 meters. In the hard helmet dives made to the tunnel construction, it was not possible to combat the strong currents coming from the underground water, and Lambert, who dived with Fleuss' rebreather, managed to close the leak points in the tunnel.

The first true chemical carbon dioxide absorbing material, barium hydroxide, was used to remove excess CO2 from an experimental respiratory system by Khotinsky and Lake in 1881.

Henry Fleuss continued to improve his initial design over the years. First, he added a regulator and a cylinder to the system, allowing for higher pressure (more) oxygen to be carried. Investment and research into the rebreather product continued under a London-based company called Siebe Gorman, which Fleuss was a part of, and a manufacturer of hard hats and many other diving equipment. In 1910, Siebe Gorman’s chief engineer, Sir Robert Davis, created the first mass-produced rebreather product. This product was used in military diving, submarines, and shallow water diving under the name Davis Submerged Escape Apparatus.

In 1912, Draeger launched the first submarine system equipped with a rebreather device.

One of the interesting events in the history of rebreather and mixed gas diving took place during World War II. Italian military divers attacked British ships anchored in the port of Gibraltar with oxygen rebreathers. During this attack, British divers using 50% oxygen (EAN 50) rebreathers were able to go deeper and pull their enemies down in underwater encounters against Italian divers using 100% oxygen rebreathers. Italian divers were defeated by British divers because they faced the risk of oxygen poisoning.

In 1969, Walter A. Starck and John Kanwisher produced the first oxygen sensor-based rebreather called the Electrolung. The Biomarine CCR1000 was then introduced as the forerunner of the Carleton MK15/16 products. In commercial diving, rebreathers were generally used as a bailout system.

In 1997, AP Diving launched the “Buddy Inspiration” product. This product was the first unit produced for the sport/technical diving sector. In 1999, KISS emerged as the second unit in this field. In the following years, products were produced by both new companies. In 2006, different products such as the JJ CCR closed circuit diving system began to appear by AP Diving employee Jan Jorgenson and his student Jan Petersen.

In recent years, rebreathers have become more popular. Especially the development of Shearwater or different electronic systems, the adaptation of sensor technologies and the production of carbon dioxide-capturing chemicals specifically for diving have allowed the widespread use of rebreather (closed circuit diving systems) technology. Today, rebreathers are produced in many different designs and under different brands.