Water suspension was not necessarily invented for scientific purposes, but rather as a magic trick. Water suspension (also known as Chen Lee water suspension) was invented in 1962 by U.F. Grant. U.F. Grant was a pretty big name in magic. He came up with numerous innovations in magic and even wrote books on illusions from the 1930s up until the 1960s. Recently, Magic Magazine named Grant one of the 100 most influential men in magic.
'Every language has a word for water; no living thing exists without water. It soothes the spirit and sustains the body; its beauty inspires art and music. Employed by cultures around the world in rituals and ceremonies, water bathes us from birth to death. Water is essential to life as we know it. And as it cycles from the air to the land to the sea and back again, water shapes our planet—and nearly every aspect of our lives.'(1)
'Water facilitated relatively rapid transportation prior to about 1850 C.E. In the era of exploration and discovery from the late 15th through the 18th centuries, Europeans explored all the major oceans and seas. Water was also thought to be an essential aspect of imperialism from the 16th century on (this is known the "salt water fallacy," the idea that an empire must be separated from the mother country by an ocean; this is why neither the Russian nor the American continental empires were seen as comparable to the Spanish, Portuguese, British, French, and Dutch empires). The history of exploration and trade remains a major area of historical scholarship dealing with water.' (2)
Reference:
(1) http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/past-exhibitions/water-h2o-life