Help me Identify this regulator and depth guage

[Sam Miller III]

@kelemvor

Crown indicates "Royal Aquamaster"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

US Divers moved to W. Delhi Ave, Santa Ana, California in August 1960

West Delhi was deleted as a street name and changed to Warner Avenue with the extension of Warner Ave in ~~ as I recall ~~ in February 1962 (that is what I recall ??) The date is buried somewhere in an article I published in my dedicated column about 30 years ago titled "Our Diving Heritage." .

Paulina Le Barre was with US Divers customer service in the 1980s & 1990s. At that time diving was migrating to the hinterlands and she was receiving the same sort of daily inquires as the OP is asking- But US Dives had no historical records or data- they had all been tossed out with the US Divers moves.

I had/was a "advisor/consultant" to US Divers as well as the UW instructor for the yearly US Divers company sponsored SCUBA course and at that time was well known at Divers.

Paulina began contacting me about various US Divers products, but most specifically regulators. We unilaterally or bilaterally decided a Gant (?) horizontal chart should be developed listing all regulators. years introduced to when discontinued.

The chart was printed distributed with out credit to all US Divers representatives as a FYI item.

I suspect a few of the charts may still be floating around in the vintage diving world - I recently uncovered on of mine but due to a remodel& reconfiguration of my den and research library has once again been misplaced.

Any one out there in vintage dive land have a copy they would agree to share and possibly publish ?

Sam Miller, III

 

[herman]

The crown was just a sticker so I suspect that it just fell off of many regs. I did a quick look at the early USD catalogs (they are on VDH) and the sticker shows up in the illustrations from 1958 (first year) to 67 and is missing in the 68 catalog, I don't have a 69 and in 70 the label changed so looks like, so at a minimum it ran from 58 to 67.

 

[rhwestfall]

I have DA's with, and RAM's without....

And the opposite too...

 

[herman]

Crown indicates "Royal Aquamaster"

No Sam it does not. The crown sticker we are discussing was on the DA Aquamaster from it's first appearance in the 1958 catalog. The Royal Master was introduced in 64 and the Royal Aquamaster was introduced 1966 per the USD catalogs. The crown appears above the label of all 3 regulators up until 68.

 

[agilis]

The depth gauge is a capillary type, difficult to read and only fairly accurate at best. I don't think many are still in use.

 

[DerekR]

Assuming that I am reading the serial number on the DAAM correctly, and from comparing serial numbers of known production date models, it was most likely produced around the end of October, 1959.

 

[rhwestfall]

The depth gauge is a capillary type, difficult to read and only fairly accurate at best. I don't think many are still in use.

One of the most used devices for altitude diving. Until about 6 or 7 years ago, there was a company still making them (Trident?). I was on a quest for a bit looking for functioning ones.

 

[rhwestfall]

@DerekR : I have DA #214397 - which I believe from VDH literature, is 1960.....

What are your sources as that one is a higher number, and you seem to be saying it is older than I understand mine to be....

 

[Sam Miller III]

Herman,
I stand corrected and appreciate your attention to details-

Separates those who have lived the events and those who follow and study as if preparing for a PhD dissertation-- Keep up with the attention to details it is needed and appreciated

My library of bound SDMs and dive catalogs are still available to me in all the remodel turmoil .
For my education and for the record I reviewed the full size catalogs from 1957 to 1965 (8 years) the following is the result of that review

US Diver Catalog, 1957, page 5 "Aqua -Lung regulators"- Not one regulator with a crown on label

US Diver Catalog, 1958, page 5 "Aqua -Lung regulators"- the DA Aqua Master has a crown on label

US Diver Catalog, 1959, page 3 "Aqua -Lung regulators"- the DA Aqua Master has a crown on label

US Diver Catalog, 1960, page 3 "Aqua -Lung regulators"- the DA Aqua Master has a crown on label

US Diver Catalog, 1961, page 3 "Aqua -Lung regulators"- the DA Aqua Master has a crown on label

US Diver Catalog, 1962, page 2 "Aqua -Lung regulators"- the DA Aqua Master has a crown on label

US Diver Catalog, 1963, page 3 "Aqua -Lung regulators"- the DA Aqua Master has a crown on label

US Diver Catalog, 1964, page 2 "Aqua -Lung regulators"- the Royal Aqua Master was introduced and has a crown on label as does the Aqua Master (DA)

US Diver Catalog, 1965, page 6 "Aqua -Lung regulators"- the Royal Aqua Master has a crown on label
as does the Aqua Master (DA)

Hope this is in some way of value

<<<So many memories were uncovered in reviewing the catalogs -- recreational diving was still very small so USD used what assets that were available which included the models for the US Diver Catalogs. So many US Diver employees who were also LA Co UW Instructors were used as models : Al Petre ( remember his SDM column Dining for divers?) Dick Friend, Tommy Thompson and Larry Scott and his lovely wife Ada and several others whos names I have forgotten
Lot of memories sdm>>>

Thanks again

Sam Miller, III
​

 

[herman]

A sight correction Sam, in 64 and 65 the reg was a "Royal Master" not Royal Aquamaster", it has a distinctive red label. There was a Royal Mistral in the same timeframe but a much different design. The RAM was introduced in 66 and replaced the RM. The RM had a slightly different balancing chamber and HP soft seat design that was only used those 2 years. The balancing chamber design of the RAM was used in the RAM from 66 to 72 and continued on as the design used (with some slight changes over the years) in all Conshelfs models and early model Titans..