Questions about history of octos...

[TrimixToo]

During the double hose era there was no octo. In an OOA situation divers shared air from the same regulator passing the mouthpiece back and forth between them. It looked like this:
View attachment 538482

That practice continued with single hose regulators at first then sometime during the late 1960's to the early 1970's after single hose regulators became popular, octos came into use
Also around that time the auto inflator and the SPG came into wide use. Three giant strides in scuba gear.

This picture also illustrates why all us old farts roll to the left to clear our masks. If you *always* roll to the left, you can clear the mask, the reg, or both without having to think about which of these things you will do.

 

[TrimixToo]

You can download a great many catalogs here:
https://personal.filesanywhere.com/fs/v.aspx?v=8d6d638a5f6075b5a46a

Here's an image from the Sportsways 1961 catalog:

View attachment 538593​

Here is an image from the 1960 US Divers (now Aqua Lung) catalog. Their SPG screwed into the cylinder valve but the Calypso regulator in the 1961 catalog had a port for in it on the first stage:

View attachment 538595​

As I recall, Poseidon was the first company in the US that really pushed the Octo in the late 1960s. Sportsways was the first US company with first stages that supported two second stages plus an SPG, though they didn't sell second stages separately in their catalogs.

It seems worth mentioning that $20 was Real Money in the 1960's, particularly for something nobody thought necessary at the time. The father of a family of 8 (six kids) said to me that he'd be very happy if he could make $100 a week. They were far from poor, and owned a nice house and good car at the time. A big factor in some of these advances is the better affordability of things like BCs with power inflators, SPGs, octos, computers, and the like.

 

[AfterDark]

It seems worth mentioning that $20 was Real Money in the 1960's, particularly for something nobody thought necessary at the time. The father of a family of 8 (six kids) said to me that he'd be very happy if he could make $100 a week. They were far from poor, and owned a nice house and good car at the time. A big factor in some of these advances is the better affordability of things like BCs with power inflators, SPGs, octos, computers, and the like.

That was the biggest reason for me, at 15 I'd have to cut a lot of lawns, clean out a lot of yards and pump a lot of gas at my father's gas station for $20! Air was 0.25 so a few lawns during the week and I was diving with my Jvalve all weekend. I even had one of the fancy Scuba Pro valves with the fill indicator and adjustable reserve to 800psi. Who needed a SPG?

 

[tursiops]

You can download a great many catalogs here:
https://personal.filesanywhere.com/fs/v.aspx?v=8d6d638a5f6075b5a46a

Thanks for this.
I looked at the catalogs for S;portsways, Dacor, Healthways, ScubaPro.
The earliest mention I could find of an octo was in the 1976 ScubaPro catalog; it was not in the 1973 SP catalog, and there was no 1974 or 1975 catalog to view.

 

[pauldw]

If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all

 

[Caveeagle]

I certainly try to remember one of my grandfathers favorite sayings.. “don’t believe anything that you hear, and only half of what you see!”.

I’m a little surprised this thread had gone on this long without a reference to Hal Watts, aka Mr SCUBA. Perhaps he was more of a local legend of cave and deep diving from the 60s and 70s.

FWIW, I had my first training in ‘90 and Hal was credited with the “invention” of the octopus. My early cave training was also filled with stories crediting cave divers with SPGs and BCs. E even use of Clorox jugs as the first makeshift BCs.

I am reasonably sure that cave divers first invented or used the line reels constantly. There were heated debates with wreck divers that didn’t believe in them.

 

[Akimbo]

The earliest mention I could find of an octo was in the 1976 ScubaPro catalog; it was not in the 1973 SP catalog, and there was no 1974 or 1975 catalog to view.

That sounds about right. As I recall, Poseidon was the first manufacturer to promote octos, in the US, around the late 1960s -- along with their Unisuit, the first commercially available drysuit with a waterproof zipper (developed by NASA), power inflator, and OPV (Over Pressure Valve). However, that does not mean that more advanced divers were not already using octos and independent redundant regulators.

All the regulators we used on the Andrea Doria in 1973 had Octos. Most were US Divers Conshelf regulators and a few were Poseidon. We cannibalized second stages from complete Conshelf regulators, as was the common practice. Bob Hollis arranged for US Divers to donate most of the Scuba gear along with the Kirby Morgan Band masks we used in saturation. Skin Diver Magazine did more to promote and popularize the concept of using Octos than any manufacturer. As I mentioned before, the editors and many professional underwater photographers published in Skin Diver were using Octos and redundant regulators on demanding dives in the mid to late 1960.

I got my first SPG around 1964 when I switched from a double hose to a ScubaPro single hose. They were pretty common in California, though far from universal by then.

We also used Fenzy horsecollar vests on the Doria. None had power inflators connected to the regulator and used the standard mini-bottle for inflation. One of the first things I did to my personal gear after the Doria dive was to replace the Fenzy oral inflator with a power inflator cannibalized from early Unisuit drysuit competitors. This was my first exposure to a true buoyancy compensator. None of this stuff can be credited to cave divers.

 

[Sam Miller III]

@AfterDark
"During the double hose era there was no octo....
@tursiops You were originally NAUI certified so you have been around for a while,
So may I suggest to both of you
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That you review your copies of "Skin Diver Magazine : a magazine for spearfisherman and skin-divers" for 1950 and early 1960 adverstisemts of the Viking double hose regulator with the "Buddy Tube." I suspect you will find it an interesting early Octo that had a market niche in the double hose era

FYI -Viking was a popular 2 hose regulator produced in the eastern US where you are located.

SDM

CC

@Akimbo
@roakey

 

[tursiops]

There is a difference between an advertisement by a manufacturer and "being in common use." The former is a neccessary condition to common use, but demonstrably does not ensure it. Just look ar how many "innovations" fail.

 

[AfterDark]

@Sam Miller thanks for that information. It must have been a small niche.

I may have seen one of those on eBay at one time!