SCUBA Pioneer, Christian J. Lambertsen, Dies at 93

Doctor, inventor and diver, Christian J. Lambertsen, best known for coining the acronym SCUBA, and the invention of the SCUBA gear, passed away on February 11, 2011, at his home in Newton Square, PA. 

Lambertsen invented what has first known as the LARU (Lambertsen Underwater Respiratory Unit) for the use by the US Military in WW II.  LARU was later renamed SCUBA and used by recreational divers.

Lambertsen had many accomplishments in addition to inventing the SCUBA unit.  He worked with the US Army’s Office of Strategic Services establishing special underwater forces, the US Navy training surface “frogmen” to become divers.  Lambertsen is also credited with the first exit and re-entry into a submerged submarine. 

Later in his career, while working at the University of Pennsylvania, he studied undersea and aerospace environmental physiology and in 1968, established the Institute of Environmental Medicine to study diving related diseases, oxygen toxicity and hypoxic response.  In 1992 he patented a fire-suppression product now used in commercial buildings. 

Christian J. Lambertsen received several honors, including the highest civilian award of the Department of Defense and the US Coast Guard, and in 2000, the Navy SEALS proclaimed him to be “the Father of US Combat Swimming.” 

Read more about Christian Lambertsen’s accomplishments, and see the 1942 LARU patent drawings.