- Before the invention of the modern snorkel, divers used hollow reeds to help them breathe while swimming underwater. This practice dates to sponge farmers in 3000 B.C.
- Aristotle mentions devices, described as akin to an elephant's trunk, that allowed divers to breathe surface air.
- Around 900 B.C., Assyrians used bags of animal skins filled with air while diving, and Alexander the Great oversaw the development a diving bell, which captured bubbles of air to which divers could return.
- Leonardo da Vinci is credited with inventing the first modern snorkel, a hollow breathing tube attached to a leather diver's helmet.
- Advancements in plastic and rubber greatly improved the snorkel's usefulness, not only in the construction of the snorkel but also in improvements to masks and goggles.
