Check this vintage ad out...

[happy-diver]

BOOM!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

 

[Open Ocean Diver]

Could this be the first Hookah system?

A diver holding a hose for breathing compressed air feeds fish at Weeki Wachee Springs, Florida, January 1955. Photograph by Bates Littlehales, National Geographic

 

[Luis H]

I would not call that a hookah system. There is no demand valve and they are mostly doing breath-hold diving, using compressed air... Kind of the opposite to what has being taught in scuba. The mermaid are actually certified diver, but they are also very skilled in breath-hold diving. They are very aware of the issues of using compressed air and breath-holding.

I don't know of the first "narghile" (hookah) systems, but I have the impresion that they would pre-date the 1955...

 

[Open Ocean Diver]

I would not call that a hookah system. There is no demand valve and they are mostly doing breath-hold diving, using compressed air... Kind of the opposite to what has being taught in scuba. The mermaid are actually certified diver, but they are also very skilled in breath-hold diving. They are very aware of the issues of using compressed air and breath-holding.

I don't know of the first "narghile" (hookah) systems, but I have the impresion that they would pre-date the 1955...

Trying to find what this system looked like.

The first Hookah diving systems: By the late 18th and early 19th centuries, hookah diving equipment began to appear, where surface supplied air was pumped constantly to the diver. Divers no longer had to return to a dive bell.

 

[Luis H]

Trying to find what this system looked like.

The first Hookah diving systems: By the late 18th and early 19th centuries, hookah diving equipment began to appear, where surface supplied air was pumped constantly to the diver. Divers no longer had to return to a dive bell.

I forgot about the older constant flow hookah systems you are referring to. Those have been a around for a long time. They just had a throttling valve at the most, no demand valve in those systems. You can do that when you have unlimited surface supply air.


The system used at Weeki Wachee Springs is just a low pressure hose with a hand operated valve at the end. The one in the picture looks like it had a knob that has to be turned. The ones we saw about 15 years ago appeared to have a small lever that the mermaids could operate with their thumb. They manually open to take a breath and then shut it of. It might have been even spring loaded. I am not shure.

We had a couple of vintage gatherings at Weeki Wachee Springs and I even dove with the mermaids, but I didn't get a close look at their breathing hose. Maybe I was distracted.

In the picture below you can see the LP hose. She is holding the valve behind my back.

Here is another picture in Weeki Wachee Springs. You can see the auditorium with the public seating area in the background.

 

[Open Ocean Diver]

I forgot about the older constant flow hookah systems you are referring to. Those have been a around for a long time. They just had a throttling valve at the most, no demand valve in those systems. You can do that when you have unlimited surface supply air.


The system used at Weeki Wachee Springs is just a low pressure hose with a hand operated valve at the end. The one in the picture looks like it had a knob that has to be turned. The ones we saw about 15 years ago appeared to have a small lever that the mermaids could operate with their thumb. They manually open to take a breath and then shut it of. It might have been even spring loaded. I am not shure.

We had a couple of vintage gatherings at Weeki Wachee Springs and I even dove with the mermaids, but I didn't get a close look at their breathing hose. Maybe I was distracted.

In the picture below you can see the LP hose. She is holding the valve behind my back.

View attachment 754449



Here is another picture in Weeki Wachee Springs. You can see the auditorium with the public seating area in the background.


View attachment 754450

Is that you holding the mermaid?

 

[Akimbo]

In my mind, the definition of Hookah gets pretty fuzzy beyond surface supplied. A demand valve with a mouthpiece might be one but where does freeflow stop? A mouthpiece, FFM, lightweight hat with a neck dam, Miller-Dunn style copper helmet, or a full heavy gear/deep sea rig?

You need some sort of volume buffer without a demand regulator or you either have enormous flow rates to meet peak inhalation or peak inhalation rates are clipped, which is pretty disconcerting. Water hammer is a characteristic of free flow masks, meaning the mask tends to push away from your face and gas leaks out the face seal when you exhale. The tiny exhaust valve on the Jack Browne mask is the poster child for mask water hammer.

I don't think Hookah was ever a term used in the US until the Hookah connection on double hose regulators hit the market in the 1950s. Even then it was a term used by armatures who almost never used it.

 

[Luis H]

Is that you holding the mermaid?

Yes.

 

[Open Ocean Diver]

Anyone know how the single hose regulator works?

 

[Luis H]

How it worked? Probably not very well...

Inhale and exhale into the same hose.

Drager Delpin II

Exhaust valve on the rear.