Diving suit in the context of "Environmental suit"

Many clothing materials have been used to make garments throughout history. Grasses, furs and much more complex and exotic materials have been used. Cultures near the Arctic Circle, make their wardrobes out of processed furs and skins. Different cultures have added cloth to leather and skins as a way to replace real leather. A wide range of fibers, including natural, cellulose, and synthetic fibers, can be used to weave or knit cloth. From natural fibers like cotton and silk to synthetic ones like polyester and nylon, most certainly reflects culture.

Humans have shown extreme inventiveness in devising clothing solutions to environmental hazards and the distinction between clothing and other protective equipment is not always clear-cut; examples include space suit, air conditioned clothing, armor, diving suit, swimsuit, bee-keeper's protective clothing, motorcycle leathers, high-visibility clothing, and protective clothing in general.

Standard diving dress, also known as hard-hat or copper hat equipment, deep sea diving suit, or heavy gear, is a type of diving suit that was formerly used for all relatively deep underwater work that required more than breath-hold duration, which included marine salvage, civil engineering, pearl shell diving and other commercial diving work, and similar naval diving applications. Standard diving dress has largely been superseded by lighter and more comfortable equipment.

Standard diving dress consists of a diving helmet made from copper and brass or bronze, clamped over a watertight gasket to a waterproofed canvas suit, an air hose from a surface-supplied manually operated pump or low pressure breathing air compressor, a diving knife, and weights to counteract buoyancy, generally on the chest, back, and shoes. Later models were equipped with a diver's telephone for voice communications with the surface. The term deep sea diving was used to distinguish diving with this equipment from shallow water diving using a shallow water helmet, which was not sealed to the suit.