Check this vintage ad out...

[The Ruttmeister]

That looks totally different.

Yes, my question was about function, not form.
The one in the video is a constant flow type iirc, as opposed to 'modern' regulators that are demand type.

 

[Open Ocean Diver]

Interesting.

Similar to the type from the intro of Sea Hunt?

Or an actual demand type?

Book says two stage demand, demand on one side exhaust on the opposite side. I think it also mentioned it was one of the first to start using stainless steal valve parts.

 

[Luis H]

Yep, my avatar is I, sometime in the early to mid 1950s. I "learned" to dive in Lake Erie from my father, who bought the gear and read some instructions. No wet suit, no BCD, no SPG or depth gauge. We had a packet with a CO2 cartridge we could squeeze to get an air filled lift bag if we needed help to surface. Actually, the full face mask was pretty nice and easy to clear. Air fills didn't require any cert. I wasn't even aware if there were certs of any kind then.

Damned wonder we didn't kill ourselves or suffer some serious barotrauma

If any old timers can remember the name of that rig I have, I would be interested.

As other have mentioned, that is the Scott Hydro-Pack.

Scott still makes the Scott Air-Pack (SCBA) used by fire fighters, miners, and other locations where the gas is toxic or non-breathable.

The Scott Hydro-Pack is a lot of fun to dive.

 

[Open Ocean Diver]

Always wondered in the old days without nose pockets how you would clear your ears. Read recently one way describe was to remove your mask. Can you imagine a simple thing like a nose pocket revolutionized scuba masks back in the day.

Wonder with a full face mask like the Scott Hydro how you would do it?

 

[Luis H]

That is a very good point, that I often forget. I don't need a nose pocket on a mask.

I am very lucky that my ears clear basically by themselves. Occasionally I may need to swallow or just move my jaw.
Only when I get very congested I may need to pinch my nose (and I mean very congested). I have never lost a dive day do to congestion, I have always been able to clear my ears even with a bad cold.


Added:

I have read and heard that the Scott Hydro-Pack was a big competitor to the Aqua Lung system, but that it lost out because it was much more expensive.

The story I have heard is that if the Hydro-Pack would have been priced a bit more reasonable, we would all be diving with full-face masks and the tanks valve on the bottom rather that the more common configurations we see today.

Well that might have been partially true, but now that you mention it I am going to guess that the lack of a nose pocket in the mask could have been a factor. Although to be fair many of the masks at the time did not have means to pinch your nose.

One technique (with some of the early masks, not the Hydro Pack) was to block your nose by pushing up on the bottom of the mask. Some masks in the 60's and 70's had a soft neoprene pad in the bottom to help seal the nose, instead of pinching.

 

[David Wilson]

Always wondered in the old days without nose pockets how you would clear your ears. Read recently one way describe was to remove your mask. Can you imagine a simple thing like a nose pocket revolutionized scuba masks back in the day.

Wonder with a full face mask like the Scott Hydro how you would do it?

The Cressi Pinocchio mask with its pinchable soft-rubber nosepiece (above) invented by Luigi Ferraro has been around since 1952, while Beuchat filed a French patent for a compensator mask device back in January 1958:

Diving masks with these ear-clearing facilities have been around for over six decades.

 

[Bigbella]

A fellow, with whom I worked, some years back, had been diving since the early 1960s; and recalled a time when dedicated dive shops were not yet the norm; that he bought his first regulator, a Voit Avalon, from a large sporting goods store, along with a brief pamphlet on its proper use ("don't ascend faster than your bubbles" and "end dive when breathing becomes noticeably labored"), next to a cage of basketballs; and that he obtained airfills from a retired ConEd guy, with an air fill station, fitted in his laundry room -- a far cry from the designer air stations and glorified travel agencies that we have today . . .

 

[Open Ocean Diver]

View attachment 626814
The Cressi Pinocchio mask with its pinchable soft-rubber nosepiece (above) invented by Luigi Ferraro has been around since 1952, while Beuchat filed a French patent for a compensator mask device back in January 1958:
View attachment 626813
Diving masks with these ear-clearing facilities have been around for over six decades.

I see the Pinocchio in the catalogs along with standard round mask without nose grips even into the early 80’s still offering both, not sure why you would buy a mask without it other than less expensive.

 

[Bob DBF]

A fellow, with whom I worked, some years back, had been diving since the early 1960s; and recalled a time when dedicated dive shops were not yet the norm; that he bought his first regulator, a Voit Avalon, from a large sporting goods store, along with a brief pamphlet on its proper use ("don't ascend faster than your bubbles" and "end dive when breathing becomes noticeably labored"), next to a cage of basketballs; and that he obtained airfills from a retired ConEd guy, with an air fill station, fitted in his laundry room -- a far cry from the designer air stations and glorified travel agencies that we have today . . .

My dad bought a kit from a mail order outfit in 1962, consisted of a steel 72, Nemrod Snark III double hose reg, CO2 cartridge operated Mae West, depth game uge, surface pressure gauge, and instructions. I got fills from the local pressurized gas outfit, where we picked up oxy and acetylene for the torch.

He also bought The New Science of Skin and Scuba Diving, and I had to know it before I could use the gear.

I'll always remember as I'm driving out the driveway at 16 on my way to solo scuba dive, he yells to me " don't wreck the f'n car."


Edit: found out Sears did not sell Nemrod.

 

[captain]

That looks totally different.

A Jack Brown shallow water free flow mask. Air delivery from the compressor is manually adjusted by the diver. Still available.

Commercial Free Flow Diving Mask | Deep Sea Divers Masks | Dive Equipment | DESCO Diving Equipment and Supply Company Milwaukee, Wisconsin