![A diver displays a gold plate found on the Spanish galleon 'Santa Margarita.'](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/MXJKRDOCXZAPRPRBDRNDGTNZDY.jpg?auth=93a5032eeb1be0fb617976f5ecb1a40fc5b38126b930d91e102e9df299bd5cde&width=414&height=233&focal=394%2C379)
New research suggests oldest diving device in history may be early 17th-century Spanish invention
An investigation has concluded that a large copper piece recovered from the galleon ‘Santa Margarita’, shipwrecked in 1622, is the upper part of a submersible diving bell, predating Edmond Halley’s machine by seven decades