Diving History Museum on Catalina

[Sam Miller III]

It is a Thompson developed by Frank E Thompson and used extensively in light salvage in WW11-- It was unique that it was a SCUBA mask, as well as a Hookah mask.. It predates the God of Under water's mask by several years, but for whatever reason Frank never pursued additional development and production after WW11.

30 -35 years ago I called his company based in Ohio , just a short time after they had tossed all the documentation and manufacturing equipment for the mask..

The mask is not rare and appear regularly on e bay

Frank did write 2 books on the mask in 1944- ***

As I have often stated to my friend of 60 years the late Nic Icorn, "The diving junk man king " "You can collect all the diving equipment in the world but if you do not have documentation as to what it is, Its manufacture and when produced, and why produced you have nothing but diving junk!"

It is appears apparent all the displays at the Catalina museum are lacking display cards indicating what it is, Its manufacture and when produced,and why produced so most of the items could be by professionals considered diving junk

Sam Miller , 111

 

[drbill]

Is the museum a 5013c or a private for profit origination ?
I have a lot of items that could possibly fill in some gaps in his collection

I'll have to ask Jon and get back to you on that, Sam

 

[Sam Miller III]

FYI
I retrieved my two books from my library shelf on the Thompson (aka TECO)

They are as follows;
DIVING CUTTING and WELDING in underwater salvage operations
By Frank E Thompson, Cornell Maritime press, 224 pages No ISBN or LCC numbers
Hard cover with dust jacket
Book cover has a picture of the mask in black on an orange back ground
Most of the above information is on cover
My copy is mint with intact dust jacket protected by

DIVING CUTTING and WELDING in underwater salvage operations
By Frank E Thompson, Cornell Maritime press, 224 pages No ISBN or LCC numbers
Soft cover -light tan color
Book cover has a picture of the mask in black on an orange back ground
Most of the above information is on cover
My Soft cover copy is also mint in a protective clear plastic

Both books are essentially the same except for the covers

the 20 chapter titles are as follows
1) Training ....
2) Physics....
3) ...Air Supply
4) ...Decent
5) Tending....
6) Ascent
7) ...Accidents
8) Compressed Air Illness
9) ...diving helmets
10) Working....
11) UW Salvage....
12) UW cutting...Oxy-hydrogen
13) UW cutting - Oxy - Acetylene
14) UW cutting- Arc Lance
15) UW cutting-Arc Torch
16) UW cutting-Metal arc
17 UW Arc welding
18) Surface welding....
19) Gases
20) Useful data

Extremely interesting historical books that all divers interested in dive history and certainly museum curators should have in their libraries I have taken the time to describe the book so it is readily identifiable: . the old bibliophile adage "If you can visualize a book, you will find the book." So have at it ! Now is the time to begin searching Amazon, E bay and all the used book sellers for a copy or both copies.

The sun is shinning brightly, it is 71 degrees a gentle breeze is blowing in CenCal , it is now time for my morning walk on the beach with my little black dog Lucky

Sam Miller,111

 

[Sam Miller III]

I'll have to ask Jon and get back to you on that, Sam

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@drbill
Jon ? Could that be the son of the late Joh Hardy ?
Joh and I were close friends and dove together in the late 1950 and early 1960s., just after he was separated from USN and I from USAF in Korea ---so may memories so many stories ...of days and dives gone by

SDM

 

[drbill]

Sam... I'm not familiar with Joh Hardy. I did know Jon Hardy, but he passed away back in 2001. Jon Council is the individual who created this museum.

 

[SoCalRich]

I will share this with new & old students of the W.A.V.E.S. Project.
Wounded American Veterans Experience SCUBA. LIKE them on FB. wavesproject.org

Good Divin
SoCalRich

 

[Sam Miller III]

Sam... I'm not familiar with Joh Hardy. I did know Jon Hardy, but he passed away back in 2001. Jon Council is the individual who created this museum.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@drbill
Bill, Note thje time of this post--4:30 AM -I arise early --"Mistrakes" occur

Yep! You are so correct --JON Hardy ! 2001 -16 years ago !

It seems like only yesterday when JON & is wife Pat (? ) split . She moved to Ventura area became a moving force in the then new Bed and Breakfast trend, and JON moved to the island.

As I recall they had a son...Do you know whatever happened to him?

Cheers from mainland-Pismodise

Sam

 

[drbill]

Ah, I see, Sam. Jon's son is Alex. Not sure where he is now. I had a nice long conversation with Jon's S.O., Vicki Durst, when she visited me. She is also good friends with Pat.

I worked with Jon and Pat at the old Toyon school (Catalina) back in the early 70s.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Alec runs Santa Barbara Computer Recycling in Carpinteria.