Dangerous gear?

[simonbeans]

Cousteau and Gagnan developed the first SCUBA regulator, making diving more efficient. Yves Le Prieur's system had no regulator. It was just a hose attached to a mask at one end and a compressed air tank at the other. The air flow was constant and the diver just breathed what he needed as it flowed through the mask and out the exhaust. It was not a true SCUBA rig.

I think you need to consider your last statement. SCUBA was a term used after Cousteau-Gagnun developments. (Original patent was for the duckbill).

SCUBA as I am sure you know means Self-Contained-Underwater-Breathing-Apparatus. Not demand regulator breathing apparatus. Yves Le Prieur definitely had SCUBA.

 

[DaleC]

I would say he was more like the P.T. Barnum of scuba. All showmanship without the substance to backup the BS.

I can't go there. From what I've read JYC really just wanted to make a living diving and wanted to be a film maker. Most everything he did early on was to fund his next expedition and further his ability to do that. He understood, in a french sense, that there needed to be an element of showmanship to sell his ideas and films. Probably true for his time. Others were probably "purer" divers but they lacked the ability to transmit their craft in a large way as JYC did.

Who's Hans Hass?

If anything he was the portal that allowed the masses to witness what only a select few had seen previously.

 

[Paladin]

I used the word SCUBA as a general term to describe the system. I am aware that the term "Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus" came along much later than the Cousteau-Gagnan process. Le Prieur's system was more like the old hard hat method (without the hard hat suit) than modern SCUBA. It was wasteful and limiting. While it did allow a diver to breathe underwater, it was inefficient and primitive. I do not consider it to be a true SCUBA system but, rather, just a preliminary step in that direction.

 

[Sam Miller III]

I recall the famous line from Cool Hand Luke...
"What we have here is a failure to communicate"

It is important to investigate,study and learn well a given area of interest before making rash statements and immediately becoming an object of reticule...At least two of you are teetering on the brink of becoming one of those objects.

Hans Hass did every thing JYC did only better and ten years before using rebreathers and called the activity "Swim diving." Published a number of great books..
Yes I met and know Dr Hass in 1959, have all his American books inscribed to me.
He is alive and lives with his wife Lotte in Lichtenstein
(Dale I will post a list of Dr. Hass's American published books on VDH for you and others)

JYC had a lot of short comings-LOTS of short comings
JYC's early units were identified as Aqua Lungs, those who used them were called "Cousteau divers." We called it Lung diving in california
Yes I met JYC in 1955, when he bought US Divers (Rene sports) and I knew him. I have 7 of his books inscribed to me
I was an early consultant to US Divers and taught the company SCUBA program.

Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus aka SCUBA is an American acronym developed early in WW 11 prior to JYC's Aqua lung, by Dr Chris Lambertson to identify his unit vs helmet and hose diving of that era.

Diving history should be preserved but the facts should be preserved correctly, with out I heard, I suppose, I think...
Or darn foolish statements..There has been more than enough damage to diving history tonight...I am irritated and I am going to bed!

SDM
.

 

[rjack321]

Most everything he did early on was to fund his next expedition and further his ability to do that. He understood, in a french sense, that there needed to be an element of showmanship to sell his ideas and films. Probably true for his time. .

Just JYC's time? Isn't this some sort of universal human self promotion concept? At least amongst those not pathologically shy.

 

[Rich Keller]

If anything he was the portal that allowed the masses to witness what only a select few had seen previously.

You have to give the man credit for his skills with a video camera and he did help bring diving into the main stream but these were just side effects of the showmanship he used to promote himself and his company. His methods in doing so are a whole different story. There is a reason they do not air his TV shows any more, even the edited ones, if you viewed them now you would pick them apart. His business practices were even worse just ask Gagnan, Kirby or Morgan.

 

[Sitkadiver]

I recall the famous line from Cool Hand Luke...
"What we have here is a failure to communicate"

It is important to investigate,study and learn well a given area of interest before making rash statements and immediately becoming an object of reticule...At least two of you are teetering on the brink of becoming one of those objects.

Hans Hass did every thing JYC did only better and ten years before using rebreathers and called the activity "Swim diving." Published a number of great books..
Yes I met and know Dr Hass in 1959, have all his American books inscribed to me.
He is alive and lives with his wife Lotte in Lichtenstein
(Dale I will post a list of Dr. Hass's American published books on VDH for you and others)

JYC had a lot of short comings-LOTS of short comings
JYC's early units were identified as Aqua Lungs, those who used them were called "Cousteau divers." We called it Lung diving in california
Yes I met JYC in 1955, when he bought US Divers (Rene sports) and I knew him. I have 7 of his books inscribed to me
I was an early consultant to US Divers and taught the company SCUBA program.

Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus aka SCUBA is an American acronym developed early in WW 11 prior to JYC's Aqua lung, by Dr Chris Lambertson to identify his unit vs helmet and hose diving of that era.

Diving history should be preserved but the facts should be preserved correctly, with out I heard, I suppose, I think...
Or darn foolish statements..There has been more than enough damage to diving history tonight...I am irritated and I am going to bed!

SDM
.

Dr. Miller,

There is a wonderful article on the Legends of Diving site about the "Name" SCUBA vs. the "NAME" Aquq Lung. You may have heard of the author.


What's In a Name by Dr. Sam Miller - History of SCUBA Diving

Thank You again for those articles.

Dave Nelson
Sitka, Alaska

 

[Sam Miller III]

SITKA DIVER,

I have heard the name...My grandfather, #1, my father,Junior, my son.IV and me 111.

Thank you for the complement! I appreciate them,

SDM 111

 

[John C. Ratliff]

I would say he was more like the P.T. Barnum of scuba. All showmanship without the substance to backup the BS.

Mr. Keller, you probably have not read Cousteau's first book, The Silent World. He had Gagnan develope the demand regulator and tested it, almost loosing his life several of times (first to the oxygen rebreather, then in a cave dive). He formed the Undersea Research Group within the French Navy, and ran tests to explore the depth limits of diving the aqualung with air. During the German occupation of France, he and his small group of divers were diving to over 100 feet under the eyes of the Germans, when the Germans were limited to about 33 feet on oxygen. There was probably some covert activity too for the Allies. JYC developed a unique manned submersible, and conducted experiments with underwater living that were pioneering efforts. He also brought a bunch of us to diving.

That being said, I do not like some of the things that he did in his life. His son has written about some of that. But you cannot say that he was "...all showmanship without the substance to back up his B.S."

SeaRat

---------- Post added February 6th, 2013 at 09:47 PM ----------

The Caravelle was designed by Luigi Ferraro, who also came up with the original Cressi Rondine full-foot fin. Here is what the website dedicated to Ferraro says about the Caravelle at:

Inventor and Entrepreneur | Luigi Ferraro

Caravelle Fins

They were presented to the market in 1963 and therefore represent one of the first articles that Ferraro designed for Technisub, the company he founded the previous year. The Caravelle fin has two characteristics that set it above all other existing fins: it is composed of a shoe and a blade that are made from different materials. The Shoe is made of rubber, which, at the time, was the only material used to produce fins. The blade, however, and this is the novelty, is produced with a new material - polypropylene. This earned its inventor, Giulio Natta, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in exactly the same year that Ferraro employed it for the Caravelle fin. Blade and shoe can be easily dismantled and assembled by hand and the shoe can be used as a normal protective shoe to walk on rocks or sand. But this is not the only benefit of the Caravelle fin. Most of all, the fin ensures excellent performance due to the lightness and elasticity of the blade. Jacques-Yves Cousteau was so enthusiastic about it that he nominated Ferraro "the best fin designer in the world" and, as expected, used it for his team.

Here's how the fin looked assembled, with the two parts detached and the plasticine model of the prototype:

View attachment 146609View attachment 146610View attachment 146611

David,

I still have a pair of Caravelle fins that I modified into my first practical version of a "scoop fin." I used them in Okinawa, and one of the nice things about the detachable blade was to be able to walk over coral without taking the fin boots off.

SeaRat

 

[Sam Miller III]

[h=3]Cousteau Bio--by Brad Matsen[/h]
"Jacques Cousteau; The Sea King"
by
Brad Matsen.

"Jacques Cousteau opened up the undersea world as no one has done before or since. But not generally know is the fascinating and compelling individual behind the acclaimed television personality.

With the cooperation of many of Jacques Cousteau&#8217;s collaborators, friends, and family, Brad Matsen gives us the first full picture of this remarkable life. ... developing<< with Emil Gagnon..from a modified Gasogen >>&#8212;and risking his life to test&#8212;the regulator that made scuba diving possible; running the world&#8217;s largest scuba equipment manufacturing firm; <<US DIvers>> becoming a legendary catalyst of the worldwide environmental movement; starring in The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau and in hundreds of documentaries; and publishing more than fifty books.

The widowed Cousteau marrying his longtime mistress Francine &#8212;forty years his junior and the mother of two of his four children&#8212;kindling a bitter family feud that continues to this day. <<< Francine aka: The out of step, step mother >>>

Vividly conveying the people, the adventure, the science, and the lure of the sea that shaped Cousteau&#8217;s life, Matsen paints a luminous portrait of a man who profoundly changed the way we view, and treat, our planet.


Brad Matsen is the author of Titanic's Last Secrets, Descent: The Heroic Discovery of the Abyss, and many other books about the sea and its inhabitants. "


Comment:
"I have been reading it and even though a couple of the chapters feel like they were taken directly from "The Silent World" there is a lot of information I had never heard. Some things you read about him make you believe he was a saint. Others that he was the devil himself. This one seems a little sugar coated but there are definitely some sore spot that Matsen discusses at length. No matter how many times I read the account of Cousteau and Dumas almost dying in that weird freshwater spring in France from carbon monoxide poisoning I get the willies. I've never had a bout with carbon monoxide but have had the feeling of being too deep, too dark and a buddy that was having problems. I think just about everyone would enjoy reading it."


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ed note:
Previous Cousteau biographies;

** Undersea Explorer; the story of Captain Cousteau --James Dugan 1957
James Dugan was his PR man: First of the men fish..etc

** Cousteau; Unauthorized biography - Axel Madsen, 1986
Probably the best bio. no holds barred

** Cousteau, the Captain and his world -a personal portrait-Richard Munson.1989
Rushed into publication glorify Cousteau and to negate Madsen's book

All must have must read if you are a Cousteau fan: Dugan, Madsen, Munson & Matsen....