History of Balanced Regulators?
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Here are two early Poseidon models, distributed through Barakuda of Germany, in the 1960s — the Cyklomat, an equivalent of the Cyklon Junior, along with a later model, with a more “modern” second stage. Notice the single port for the first.
Parts, amazingly enough, are still available to this day, since its guts — diaphragms, springs, and HP seats, are effectively that of the Cyklon 300.
They are both unbalanced and were described by Poseidon, at the time, as “compensated” . . .
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Compensated means depth compensating, and what SCUBA regulators do. Without it, it would be quite "interesting"...
I am well aware of that. I intended it as a bit of an open joke, considering it was then a specific selling point(!) by Poseidon; and what would an alternative of "uncompensated" provide?
Floaters . . .
Is there such a thing as a pressure reducing regulator that is not compensated? Even dome loaded regulators are designed to be compensated. I suppose you could plug the dome at a given pressure to make it compensated to a fixed pressure (depth).
Felt I had to say it. Some reading the thread may not. Didn't mean it directly at anybody.
The ad campaign reminded me of one of Mad magazine's advertising satires, over the years, such as "our cereal doesn't contain broken glass, like our competitors" . . .
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I just recently looked up a patent on the La Spiro Narghile Hookah Regulators. In 1956 La Spiro filed a French patent on a balanced hookah regulator, which would make it a second stage regulator, of the double hose design. Here's the patent:
Over on Vintage Scuba Supply's website, we have a thread going on this regulator.
vintagescuba.proboards.com
One of the guys, Phil, is rebuilding this regulator, which may actually be the first balanced design (according to the patent, Phil isn't convinced).
Anyway, I thought I'd throw this out there so you could at least see it.
SeaRat
PS, concerning the U.S. Divers Company original Calypso, or the AMF Voit 40 Fathom regulators, they were very good performing regulators. The U.S. Navy Experimental Diving Unit never approved either of them, as they had a small exhalation opening, but I enjoyed diving them for a number of years.
US2951676A - Balanced valve - Google Patents
patents.google.com
Over on Vintage Scuba Supply's website, we have a thread going on this regulator.
La Spirotechnique Narghile or Narguile Hookah Regulators | Vintage Scuba Diving Community Forum
I got 3 Narghile hookah regulators a while back. I bought them from a seller in Turkey, who wanted way more than I paid, but even so, I got screwed big time. It wasn't his fault entirely, although he
vintagescuba.proboards.com
One of the guys, Phil, is rebuilding this regulator, which may actually be the first balanced design (according to the patent, Phil isn't convinced).
Anyway, I thought I'd throw this out there so you could at least see it.
SeaRat
PS, concerning the U.S. Divers Company original Calypso, or the AMF Voit 40 Fathom regulators, they were very good performing regulators. The U.S. Navy Experimental Diving Unit never approved either of them, as they had a small exhalation opening, but I enjoyed diving them for a number of years.
Awesome thank you for sharing, do you know if any were produced at the time?I just recently looked up a patent on the La Spiro Narghile Hookah Regulators. In 1956 La Spiro filed a French patent on a balanced hookah regulator, which would make it a second stage regulator, of the double hose design. Here's the patent:
US2951676A - Balanced valve - Google Patents
patents.google.com
Over on Vintage Scuba Supply's website, we have a thread going on this regulator.
La Spirotechnique Narghile or Narguile Hookah Regulators | Vintage Scuba Diving Community Forum
I got 3 Narghile hookah regulators a while back. I bought them from a seller in Turkey, who wanted way more than I paid, but even so, I got screwed big time. It wasn't his fault entirely, although he
One of the guys, Phil, is rebuilding this regulator, which may actually be the first balanced design (according to the patent, Phil isn't convinced).
Anyway, I thought I'd throw this out there so you could at least see it.
SeaRat
Really interesting as all I've found for early design balanced double hose configs is the 1964 US Divers Royal Master.
This being after the development of balanced single hose Calypso 1961. Which I found surprising.
The Narghile wasn't a true double hose regulator, which includes both the first and second stages in one body. While it does appear to borrow the case from a complete regulator, the case only houses a second stage. It's for a hookah setup, which means this second stage is fed intermediate pressure air through a long hose attached to a first stage on the surface. The first stage in turn is fed high pressure air either from a pump (compressor) or a cylinder.
I don't understand how the drawing in the patent could be a balanced second stage. There is no balance chamber or other apparent way to counteract changes in inlet pressure.
It would be pressure compensating though, maybe that was what they meant by balanced?
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