[2] A common secondary purpose of dive skins, wetsuits and dry suits is protection from abrasion, stings from sea animals and minor cuts and impact injury.

Le Roux created a waterproof and windproof fabric which could be made into early diving suits.

One of his better-known recoveries was on the Dutch Slot ter Hooge, which had sunk off Madeira with over three tons of silver on board.

[6] At the same time, Andrew Becker created a leather-covered diving suit with a helmet featuring a window.

Becker used a system of tubes for inhaling and exhaling, and demonstrated his suit in the River Thames, London, during which he remained submerged for an hour.

[citation needed] German-born British engineer Augustus Siebe developed the standard diving dress in the 1830s.

From the late 1800s and throughout most of the 20th century, most standard dress was made from a thin sheet of solid rubber laminated between layers of tan twill.

[7] The oldest preserved suit, named "Wanha herra" (meaning "Old gentleman" in the old Finnish language) can be found in Raahe Museum, Finland.

[citation needed] The conservator of Raahe Museum, Jouko Turunen, tailored an accurate copy of the old suit in 1988, which has been successfully tested underwater several times.

Lighter dry suits made of latex rubber by Pirelli were used in World War II by Italian frogmen.

They also provide some defense from abrasive and sharp objects as well as some forms of potentially harmful underwater life.

[11] The "Dive Skin" was originally invented to protect scuba divers in Queensland Australia against the "Box jellyfish" (Chironex fleckeri)[citation needed] In 1978, Tony Farmer was a swimsuit designer and manufacturer who owned a business called "Daring Designs".

[citation needed] Wetsuits are relatively inexpensive, simple, expanded neoprene suits that are typically used where the water temperature is between 10 and 25 °C (50 and 77 °F).

A suit that is too loose will allow a large amount of water to circulate over the diver's skin, taking up body heat.

A suit that is too tight is very uncomfortable and can impair circulation at the neck, a very dangerous condition which can cause blackouts.

Wetsuits are limited in their ability to preserve warmth by three factors: the wearer is still exposed to some water, the suit is compressed by the ambient pressure, reducing effectiveness at depth, and the insulating neoprene can only be made to a certain thickness before it becomes impractical to don and wear.

The seals limit the volume of water entering and leaving the suit, and a close fit minimises pumping action caused by limb motion.

The diver controls the flow rate of the water from a valve near his waist, allowing him to vary the warmth of the suit in response to changes in environmental conditions and workload.

[19] These suits are normally made of foamed neoprene and are similar to wetsuits in construction and appearance, but they do not fit as closely by design, and need not be very thick, as their primary function is to temporarily retain and guide the flow of the heating water.

If the heater fails and a backup unit cannot be immediately brought online, a diver in the coldest conditions can die within minutes.

Depending on decompression obligations, bringing the diver directly to the surface could prove equally deadly.

This causes a large transient volume of water (13 to 22 litres) to be held in the suit, which can impede swimming due to the added inertia.

Wetsuits are effective against scalding of the covered parts of the body, and thermal underwear can protect against chafe, and keep the standby diver warm at the surface.

The hot-water suit is normally a one-piece neoprene wetsuit, fairly loose fitting, to fit over a thin neoprene undersuit, which can protect the diver from scalding if the temperature control system fails, with a zipper on the front of the torso and on the lower part of each leg.

Gloves and boots are worn which receive hot water from the ends of the arm and leg hoses.

The heating water flows out at the neck and cuffs of the suit through the overlap with gloves, boots, or hood.

The woven materials are relatively inelastic and constrain joint mobility unless inflated to a fairly loose fit.

Neoprene drysuits are comparatively streamlined like wetsuits and are more elastic, but in some cases do not allow garments to be layered underneath and are thus less adaptable to varying temperatures.

Special dry suits made of strong externally rubberised fabric are worn by commercial divers who work in contaminated environments such as sewage or hazardous chemicals.