How To Build Your Own Diving Lung

[Sam Miller III]

Dale C..

If you receive a copy of

"Making an Aqualung" by E.T. Fearon
Detailed instructions on tank, regulator, and pack."

Please share and/or PM or E mail a copy to me...Or it's ISBN or LCCC number.

Thanks
SDM

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Back Plates were very common in that era..

Commercial Back Plates were introduced by Sea Craft in the early 1960s.

what is new is also old...each generation "discovers a new item...."

It's funny how people discover plates for the first time and act like they're some new cutting edge invention.
All they have to do is take up an interest in a little diving history and they would see many things that made sense but were forgotten about.

 

[vintagediver]

I was under the impression that lightweight tanks were too buoyant, especially when nearly empty and that any weight-loss advantage would need to be compensated for by adding more weight on your belt whereas steel and aluminum tanks, as we know them, are generally slightly negative when full and slightly positive when empty. If this is not correct please advise me otherwise. It's quite possible that I forgot something. For example, I remember buying one of my old Calypso regulators but can't remember when I got the other one. Perhaps there are more nitrogen bubbles in one part of my brain than in another :demented:

If the tanks are really Manganese and not Magnesium, then they would be heavier than steel given the same wall thickness. Manganese is added to steel to change its strength and durability.

 

[duckbill]

Wow, manganese tanks! But be too buoyant for practical use.

Where did you see this anyway?

 

[JamesBon92007]

If the tanks are really Manganese and not Magnesium, then they would be heavier than steel given the same wall thickness. Manganese is added to steel to change its strength and durability.

I think I read something that got me confused and I was thinking about carbon-fiber tanks which are lightweight and possibly didn't even exist when the article I read was written.

 

[JamesBon92007]

Where did you see this anyway?

This is from the article that vintagediver sent me. It's by E.T. Fearon and is from, apparently, a British publication circa 1950s. It says it was first publilshed in Newnes Practical Mechanics January 1955. I'll look for it online so wish me luck.

"The cylinder, which is by far the most expensive item in the whole assembly, is a specially made lightweight model, 19 in tall and 7 in diameter. Although the wall thickness is only about 1/10in the cylinder will withstand test pressures of 3,000 lbs per sq. in. for it is solid drawn from manganese steel, the strongest of the steel alloys."

I don't have a web site otherwise I'd post it.

 

[Sam Miller III]

I have or had a copy of the British magazine--- much of my historical documents were stolen by a Frenchman and his American wife who live in Mexico..

Don't you love crooks!

JamesBon--when are you going to reply to my PM?

sdm

 

[Akimbo]

... Commercial Back Plates were introduced by Sea Craft in the early 1960s...."

Sam:

I was just a lid so please fill me in. The first back pack I noticed was in the 1960 Voit catalog. A local sporting goods store had one that I drooled over. It was a blue plastic thing with white speckles and no crotch or chest straps. I recall that it was rather abrasive, not nearly as smooth or refined as the injection molded "Snug-Pack" in 1962.

I am probably wrong, but it seams like Sportsways was promoting themselves as the "back pack innovator" with their metal packs (Aluminum???). It struck me like both Voit and Sportsways were into general sporting goods and figured they better get into the diving thing. Since you were there, how did all this evolve? I never really understood ScubaPro's origins either, but weren’t they much later in the game?

 

[JamesBon92007]

JamesBon--when are you going to reply to my PM?

sdm

I don't know how.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

I don't know how.

JamesBond92007,

Go into "Your Notifications" at the top of the page by double-clicking on it. When you get there, open the message by clicking (or double clicking) on it. You can reply to it by using the buttons at the top of the page. It's pretty easy once you get the hang of it.

For everyone, magnesium metal cannot be used as a scuba cylinder, as it reacts with water:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnesium

I think manganese is too expensive to be used as a scuba tank, but as a steel alloy it is probably in there.

SeaRat