Editing Timeline of diving technology (section)

===Rebreathers===
{{Main|Rebreather#History}}
* 1808: on 17 June, ''Sieur'' [[Pierre-Marie Touboulic]] from [[Brest, France|Brest]], a mechanic in [[Napoleon]]'s Imperial Navy, patented the oldest known [[oxygen rebreather]], but there is no evidence of any prototype having been manufactured. This early rebreather design worked with an oxygen reservoir, the oxygen being delivered progressively by the diver himself and circulating in a closed circuit through a [[Sponge (material)|sponge]] soaked in [[limewater]].<ref name="plongeesout.com" /> Touboulic called his invention ''Ichtioandre'' (Greek for 'fish-man').<ref name="Ichtioandre drawing" />
* 1849: Pierre-Aimable de Saint Simon Sicard (a [[chemist]]) made the first practical oxygen rebreather. It was demonstrated in London in 1854.<ref name="hds4537" />
*1853: Professor T. Schwann designed a rebreather in [[Belgium]] which he exhibited in Paris in 1878.<ref name="Bech" /> It had a big backpack tank containing oxygen at about 13 [[Bar (unit)|bar]], and two scrubbers containing [[sponge]]s soaked in [[caustic soda]].
* 1876: An English merchant seaman, [[Henry Fleuss]], developed the first workable self-contained diving rig that used compressed oxygen. This prototype of closed-circuit scuba used rope soaked in [[caustic potash]] to absorb carbon dioxide so the exhaled gas could be re-breathed.<ref name="rebreather_hx" />