Basic gear from mid-twentieth-century France

[John C. Ratliff]

Hurricane manufactured a second snorkel valve called the Hurricane Automatic Valve.

Hurricane Automatic Valve
View attachment 494300
Caption in English: "Hurricane AUTOMATIC valve. Fits any CURVED breathing tube. The patented valve shuts off at the slightest contact with water. This valve closes when submerged and seals the air intake in all positions.

This device puzzles me because I can't tell whether it is intended for a J-shaped or S-shaped snorkel. Perhaps, dear reader, you may be able to offer suggestions.

Otherwise, that's enough for today. Next time I will review Hurricane brand combined snorkel masks. Stay tuned.

David,

This attachment had to be or either a "C" or "S" shaped snorkel. It could not have been used for a "J" snorkel, as there is only one opening. If used on a "J" snorkel, the opening would be blocked by the ping pong ball (or whatever float was used) falling down by gravity.

SeaRat

 

[David Wilson]

Thanks, John. I suspected as much, but just wanted some confirmation.

On to Hurricane combined snorkel masks. Illustrator Albert Dubout's contributions above, courtesy of the Musée Dumas at Légende ou histoire ? - Le blog de histoire-plongée.over-blog.com.

Hurricane Valvomatic snorkel-mask

The Italian importer's caption translated roughly into English: "D. 1091 — HURRICANE VALVOMATIC. With watertight seal. Ordinary glass." The publicity material above dates from 1960.

Here is an image of an actual Hurricane Valvomatic, a little worse for wear:

Note the resemblance between the ping-pong ball cage fitted to the single snorkel protruding from the Valvomatic and the cage on the Hurricane Plume breathing tube below:

 

[David Wilson]

The Hurricane Valvomatic design resembled other combined French snorkel-masks of the 1950s/1960s:

American Total

Beuchat 125

Kent Submarine

Marin mask and snorkel

Match Combiné

Squale Cygne

Tahiti snorkel mask

Watersports Méduse

That makes nine different models in all if you include the Hurricane Valvomatic below:

What they all have in common is a single snorkel with a ping-pong ball valve (missing in some of the images above) protruding from the centre of the top of the diving mask. Some models are designed to cover the eyes and the nose only, leaving the mouth free and enabling the user to breathe through the nose when face downwards in the water. Others, notably the Match Combiné and the Watersports Méduse come with chin-pieces signalling their full-face coverage including the mouth. It is a complete myth that all mid-twentieth-century combined snorkel-masks were full-face masks.

Ball-valve snorkel-masks have gone in and out of favour over the years around the world and in France in particular. The French government suspended their manufacture, importation and marketing in a decree of 2 August 1989 entitled Arrêté du 2 août 1989 portant suspension de la fabrication, de l’importation, de la mise sur le marché et ordonnant le retrait des masques de plongée comportant un tube incorporé muni d’une balle de ping-pong. Here is a rough translation of the text:

Order of 2 August 1989, suspending the manufacture, importation and marketing, and ordering the withdrawal, of diving masks incorporating a built-in tube equipped with a ping-pong ball

NOR: ECO8900081A

The Minister of State, Minister of Economy, Finance and Budget, the Minister of Industry and Regional Planning, the Minister Delegate to the Minister of State, Minister of Economy, Finance and the budget, responsible for the budget, and the Secretary of State to the Minister of State, Minister of National Education, Youth and Sports, responsible for youth and sports.

Having regard to Act No. 83-660 of 21 July 1983 on consumer safety, and in particular Articles 1 and 3 thereof;

Having regard to Decree No. 84-272 of 11 April 1984 determining the sanctions applicable in case of infringement of the provisions of Act No. 83-660 referred to above;

Having regard to the Customs Code;

Whereas diving masks with a built-in tube do not allow mouth breathing to be dissociated from nose breathing,

Whereas this design promotes raised levels of carbon dioxide inside the mask, which increases the risk of asphyxiation,

Whereas the presence of a ping-pong ball intended to shut off the open end of the tube is unreliable in operation and likely to aggravate the aforementioned risks,

Whereas masks with a built-in snorkel fitted with a ping-pong ball, under normal conditions of use, present a risk to user safety,

Whereas these masks are primarily sold during summer,

Whereas this represents a clear and immediate danger,

It is resolved that:

Article 1. Manufacture, import, marketing and distribution, with or without charge, of masks with built-in snorkels fitted with ping-pong balls shall be suspended for a period of one year.

Article 2. These products shall be removed wherever they are found.

Article 3. Costs relating to these provisions shall be borne by the manufacturer or the importer.

Article 4. The Director General for Competition, Consumption and Fraud Control, the Director General for Customs and Indirect Taxation at the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Budget, the Director General for Industry at the Ministry of Industry and Regional Planning and the Director of Sports shall each be responsible for carrying out this Order, which will be published in the Official Journal of the French Republic.

Done at Paris on 2 August 1989.

The original French legal text can be found at Fac-similé JO du 04/08/1989, page 09832 | Legifrance.

I'll leave it there for today. I will return in a few days' time to review a series of differently designed Hurricane combined snorkel-masks.

 

[David Wilson]

So the Hurricane Valvomatic was one of many mid-twentieth-century French snorkel masks featuring one or two tubes topped with ping-pong ball valves and permanently attached to the diving masks into which they opened. Hurricane adopted a higher-tech approach when designing another line of snorkel masks. You may recall the following image posted in an earlier message:

The snorkel mask in the picture above is a stylised image of the following:

This Hurricane design closely resembles the automatic valve assembly patented by the British diving equipment firm E T. Skinner (Typhoon) in 1957:

Here are the patent drawings of British Patent GB781597A, "Improvements in or relating to Valves for Underwater Breathing Apparatus":

If you want to read the full text of this patent, it can be downloaded from Espacenet - Original document.

Both the Typhoon and the Hurricane versions claimed that the valve would operate correctly whatever position the user was in. US Divers had a different version called the "Marino" for the American market:

 

[David Wilson]

Let's take a closer look at the three models in the Hurricane snorkel mask range featuring this "automatic valve assembly" device. The first mask goes under the name "Automatic" or "Automatique" and covers the eyes and nose only.

Hurricane Automatique/Automatic snorkel mask

The lengthy caption to the third picture above translates roughly as follows: "HURRICANE AUTOMATIC closes when submerged, sealing the air intake in all positions. HURRICANE AUTOMATIC will not flatten on the face, thanks to its corrugated hose. HURRICANE AUTOMATIC is supplied with the famous HURRISECUR glass pane set in stainless steel. HURRICANE AUTOMATIC restores the airway instantly when surfacing. HURRICANE AUTOMATIC enables you to breathe through the mouth or the nose. HURRICANE AUTOMATIC enables you to learn to swim without running the risk of swallowing mouthfuls of water. HURRICANE AUTOMATIC features a valve that will immediately fit any straight breathing tube. HURRICANE AUTOMATIC has no need of a warranty card: it is guaranteed for SIX MONTHS. Three models: PANORAMIC – GRAND CHAMP – TOUS-VISAGES (Men, Women, Children) BLUE or WHITE."

So the valve assembly could be used in combination with three Hurricane diving masks (PANORAMIC – GRAND CHAMP – TOUS-VISAGES), which could all be used without it as well:

In his Collins Pocket Guide to the Undersea World (London: Collins, 1956), Ley Kenyon describes the Hurricane Automatic thus: “A very comfortable mask, the facial edge lying flat in the face. Has a built-in breathing tube from the top centre with a flexible rubber tube to the ball-valve assembly, which is fixed to the head straps to prevent it vibrating.”

 

[David Wilson]

The second model in this series of snorkel masks with the Hurricane automatic valve assembly is the Supermatic full-face mask. Unlike the Automatic/Automatique, the Supermatic covered the eyes, nose and mouth.

Hurricane Supermatic snorkel mask

Here's a product description with dated prices: "HURRICANE SUPERMATIC. Mask with full-face panoramic fitting for nose and mouth breathing. Provides a watertight fit for all faces with an exceptionally good field of vision. Comes with built-in snorkel and Hurricane Automatic Ball Valve, which closes in any submerged position. Ear cups fitted to the head-strap. Featheredge fitting. Ordinary or yellow filter glass pane. Price: £7 7s 6d (Lillywhites, 1956); £7 7s 7d (Typhoon; Cogswell & Harrison, 1956); £6 16s 9d (Cogswell & Harrison, 1958)."

Note the chin-piece covering the mouth and identifying this item as a full-face mask. It is not always easy to tell from contemporary pictures of snorkel masks whether they include or exclude the mouth. As for the ear cups mentioned in the description of the Supermatic, they are described thus in a Hurricane catalogue (my translation): "EAR CUPS. Rubber. They fit every HURRICANE diving mask and eliminate the unpleasant effects of water entering the ear canals when diving."

 

[David Wilson]

The third and final Hurricane ball valve assembly mask to be reviewed today is the Cadematique. Just as the Automatique/Automatic is compatible with the Grand Champ, Tous Visages and Panormic masks, the Cadematique corresponds to the Hurricane Cadet mask above, which was intended for children and young people.

Hurricane Cadematique snorkel mask

The caption (from a Typhoon catalogue) reads: "HURRICANE CADEMATIQUE. Full-face mask with universal valve as above to fit a narrow or small face. Ordinary glass." Price: £5 5s 0d. (Typhoon, 1956).

That's it for today and for Hurricane snorkel masks of either variety. Next time we'll take a look at Hurricane fins.

 

[Sam Miller III]

David
You have unearthed masks I have never heard about or seen --

I have a reference that indicated snorkeling was a very popular activity immediately after WW11 in Southern France as a sporting activity as well as a means of supplying food for the table.

Therefore it is apparent that the snorkel & mask and the snorkel/mask were perfected to met this demand, manufactured, sold and used successfully for many years in France but few examples reached the US.

Keep up the good work -- appreciated by all

Sam Miller, 111

 

[АлександрД]

Thank you! It is the great idea of gravity valve!
I had same idea, when was obsessed for selfmade backpack rebreather for excess pressure valve (epv)
I try to invent valve for counterlung bag, thal allow to compensate force due to body-rebreather position..
I have Idea, but for some years I became too lazy to build my own rebreather, because have not ability to have much dives, and for my qtty of dives - OC is more simple and comfort
Major idea - vlave, spring and weight.
Weight should compenaste water pressure for counterlung bag height. In normal position weight should be in the upper position, above spring, and should add force to closing valve.
In the bottom position it should remove most of forces from spring, to easy air leakage from bag.
In this case does not matter, where EPV is. Force could stay the same

 

[David Wilson]

Thanks, Sam and АлександрД, for your messages. And a Happy Boxing Day to all my readers. Boxing Day is what we Brits call the second day of Christmas commemorating the donation of Christmas "boxes", or money gifts, to people who perform services at other people's homes such as delivering mail or newspapers or collecting refuse. Anyway, I've a few hours to spare before having another festive meal out, so I'm going to spend Wednesday morning as I usually do, composing another contribution to the history of European diving equipment.

So now as the French say, "revenons à nos moutons" (let's get back to our sheep) when they mean "let's get back to the subject in hand." Hurricane manufactured four different models in their range of swimming fins. We'll bein with the "Record".

Hurricane Record fins

The caption on this catalogue page translates roughly as follows: "Hurricane “RECORD” fins are available in three sizes: H. 16 — A small size with adjustable strap. Perfect for children. Continental European shoe sizes from 30 to 37 accommodated. H. 17 — A medium size. H. 18 — A large size. “RECORD” fins, which are manufactured to a very high standard in pure blue rubber, are extremely efficient. These classic, hardwearing fins will give you full satisfaction.Their low price makes them affordable for everybody.

Another page illustrates the children's size:

This is the same version of the "Record" as the H. 16 — A small size with adjustable strap. Perfect for children. Continental European shoe sizes from 30 to 37 accommodated."

And here are some images of actual "Record" fins:

So what we have here in the Hurricane Record is an open-heel fin with a twin-buckle adjustable strap and a blade with two short ribs and concave tips. A fairly typical fin for its time offering the basics at a relatively low price.