<Li> Atmospheric diving suit - an armored suit which protects the diver from the surrounding water pressure . </Li> <P> A scuba set is characterized by full independence from the surface during use, by providing breathing gas carried by the diver . Early attempts to reach this autonomy from the surface were made in the 18th century by the Englishman John Lethbridge, who invented and successfully built his own underwater diving machine in 1715 . </P> <P> An early diving dress using a compressed air reservoir was designed and built in 1771 by Sieur Fréminet from Paris . He conceived an autonomous breathing machine equipped with a reservoir, dragged behind the diver or mounted on his back . Fréminet called his invention machine hydrostatergatique and used it successfully for more than ten years in the harbors of Le Havre and Brest, as stated in the explanatory text of a 1784 painting . </P> <P> The Frenchman Paul Lemaire d'Augerville built and used autonomous diving equipment in 1824, as did the British William H. James in 1825 . James' helmet was made of "thin copper or sole of leather" with a plate window, and the air was supplied from an iron reservoir . A similar system was used in 1831 by the American Charles Condert, who died in 1832 while testing his invention in the East River at only 20 feet (6 m) deep . </P>

Who developed an apparatus to breathe compressed air underwater