Diving suit is the watertight underwater suit the diver wears in order to dive, walk and work on the seabed for a significant period of time, being equipped with air provided to him through a pipe from the surface with a manual air pump, which was usually operated by two men turning cranks.

In 1837, during the period of the Industrial Revolution in England Augustus Siebe founded a company of manufacturing diving suits, which were spread everywhere. The possibility given to sponge fishers to remain in the seabed for a long period of time launched sponge fishing internationally, and especially among Greek islanders.

Initially the helmet was connected to the rest of the suit with 12 screws, which ensured watertightness. Yet, soon the Russian-type of helmet appearεd with only 3 screws, which ensured greater practicality. Watertightness was achieved by a watertight bronze helmet, which had an air supply pipe, and which was fixed with a metal and rubber flange and three bolts to the rest of the suit making the whole watertight.

In Greece Fotes Mastorides brought the diving suit and presented it to his astonished audience in Syme in 1863. With the diving suit it was possible for the diver to remain on the seabed for long time periods, but the effects on the health of divers depending on the depth and the time of staying there were discovered in a painful way through many accidents and mishaps. The diver’s disease (infml. the bends; chokes; staggers; fml. aerobullosis; caisson disease; or decompression sickness DCS;), as it was called, plagued a large number of sponge fishers.