The New Science of Skin and Scuba Diving (New Revised Edition 1970)

[WetLens]

Couple of mine do not match your numbers - a print series issue???:

The book I took my class with in 1968/69: Third Revised Edition: 67-14583 (no ISBN)

We used the previous edition when I audited the class in 67/68, but can't find it (I know it is here somewhere...).

The version we went to shorty after I became a YMCA Instructor: Fourth Revised Edition: ISBN 0-695-81043-X Soft Cover.
This, too, is an odd one as it has a 1978 date in the publication data (Fourth Printing) 78-14212 (along with above ISBN).

Other copies I have match your data.

 

[Bob DBF]

Still have my hard cover from 1962 that I used during Dad's Auto Repair and SCUBA School in '63.

It probably would have been lost in moves if I would have taken it when I left home, but back when my dad passed away, my mom gave me the book, a Nemrod Snark III, Nemrod mae west, and a healthways capillary depth gauge, all in perfect condition.
I dive the reg and gauge every year at lake Tahoe and read the book when I want to hear that voice say "You are not getting your mitts on that gear until you know that book inside out".



Bob
------------------------------------------

That's my point, people, by and large, are not taught that diving can be deadly, they are taught how safe it is, and they are not equipped with the skills, taught and trained to the level required to be useful in an emergency.

 

[rhwestfall]

had to go look - '68 hardcover (blue cloth)..... "third revision"

 

[David Wilson]

My modest diving literature bookshelf has four versions of this work in progress:

1. Bernard E. Empleton, Edward H. Lanphier, James E. Young, Loyal G. Goff and Wallace B. Hagerhorst (Editorial Committee, Conference for National Co-operation in Aquatics): The Science of Skin and Scuba Diving: Adventuring with Safety Under Water, New York: Association Press, Revised edition, 1959. 319p. Hardback. Library of Congress catalogue no. 57-11601.

2. Bernard E. Empleton, Edward H. Lanphier, James E. Young and Loyal G. Goff (Editorial Committee, Council for National Co-operation in Aquatics): The New Science of Skin and Scuba Diving, New York: Association Press. 224p. Third Revised Edition, 2nd Printing, 1968. Paperback. SBN: 8096 0453 1. Library of Congress catalogue no. 67-14583.

3. Bernard E. Empleton, Edward H. Lanphier, James E. Young and Loyal G. Goff (Editorial Committee, Council for National Cooperation in Aquatics): The New Science of Skin and Scuba Diving, Association Press / Follett Publishing Company, Chicago. 288p. Fourth Revised Edition, 1974. Paperback. ISBN: 0-695-81043-X.

4. Bernard E. Empleton, Robert W. Hill and Edward H. Lanphier (Editorial Committee, Council for National Cooperation in Aquatics): The New Science of Skin and Scuba Diving, Association Press / Follett Publishing Company, Chicago. 302p. Fifth Revised Edition, 1980. 302p. Hardback. ISBN: 0-695-81424-9.

There is something very refreshing about the version without the "New" in the title, not least the subtitle "Adventuring with Safety Under Water" that captures the excitement and ingenuity of the early days of diving. The foreword of my 1959 edition records how "the initial momentum for the project was generated by the stimulating work of a number of skin and scuba diving enthusiasts who met as a working group during the Fourth Annual Meeting of the CNCA (Conference for National Co-operation in Aquatics) at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, in the fall of 1954."

 

[AfterDark]

That was a nice offer! I learned on the 1968 edition, my copy is long gone. A great resource and still useful to this day, physics doesn't change. It contains more useful information than both PADI OW and AOW books combined.

 

[Sam Miller III]

Still have my hard cover from 1962 that I used during Dad's Auto Repair and SCUBA School in '63.
....

Bob
-

I have heard of a few interesting dive shop names but
~~~ Dad's Auto Repair and SCUBA School ~~???

In SoCal we had a "Dive and Ride" dive shop...The owner sold diving equipment from his used car lot. He didn't last long

This is the reason that LA Co Underwater Instructor's Association promoted the standardization and certification of dive shops. Around the time of your training LA Co developed a lose knit association which, although they had cards printed and shoulder patches produced , it was just too early in the market place with out any enforcing powers . I had a patch which I never used and unfortunately it was stolen from my home so I can't at this time recall its name...

Can you?

--- Seems everything began with LA Co and it did ... John Cronin & his PADI crew picked up on the concept many years later with their 5 star shops.

SDM

 

[rhwestfall]

back a number of years ago, here in Buffalo, we had "Choo Choo Charlies 1-Hour Photo and Dive Shop"..... Crusty old store front on the border of a not so good section of town. Never saw it open....

If memory serves me right, I think there were Bail Bonds signs in the front window too....

 

[John C. Ratliff]

I started diving in 1959, using a Healthways SCUBA regulator and a 38 cubic foot tank (I was a teenager at that time), and my training as a competitive swimmer, Red Cross WSI instructor/lifeguard, and reading the book, The Silent World about three times. I didn't get certified until our dive club, the Salem Junior Aqua Club, brought a LA County instructor to Salem, Oregon to train us. He was Roy France, and he used the New Science of Skin and Scuba Diving. I lost that issue, but bought the 1970 edition later, which I still have. I then bought the 1962 edition from a local bookstore. I think it was the 1962 edition that Roy used with us. Below is a copy of my certification card, signed by Roy, after our final checkout dive on the north side of Yaquina Bay, under the bay bridge in the pilings there. He had us do a free swimming ascent from about 25 feet depth during the checkout dive. He signed my card on June 10, 1963.

I have included photos of the front and rear covers of both these editions. Of note is the back cover of the 1963 edition, as it shows photos of those diving pioneers who wrote the book for the Conference for National Co-Operation in Aquatics. Because the photo below doesn't have the definition to show the author's names, here they are from left to right, top to bottom:

Gilbert Abbe; William T. Burns, M.D.; E.R. Cross; Bernard E. Empleton;
Loyal G. Goff; Wallace B. Hagerhorst; Dr. Edward H. Lanphier, U.S.N.; Rochard Morris;
Fred Schwankovsky; Capt. James Wren, U.S.A.; James E. Young.

The Editorial Committee for the 1970 revision were: Bernard E. Empleton, Chairman, Edward H. Lanphier, M.D., James E. Young and Loyal G. Goff.

You can see some of the authors stayed with this effort for a number of years.

This book is one of the few which goes into specifics on how to clear the hoses of a double hose regulator, one of the few which shows how without non-return valves in the mouthpiece. Anyone using a double hose regulator should get this book into their library.

Dr. Sam Miller, does the logo on my card look anything like the logo you're searching for?

SeaRat

 

[Bob DBF]

I have heard of a few interesting dive shop names but
~~~ Dad's Auto Repair and SCUBA School ~~???

SDM

Private joke. I was already learning auto repair from him at the time this all happened. The old man decided to try SCUBA so he bought the book and then picked up some gear from Sears and Roebuck. As he did with any project, he read the book and started diving. Of course I kept badgering him to let me dive, so I had to read the book and explain everything to his satisfaction before I got to dive, he probably had a half dozen dives. That book, and him being a hardass, had everyone assuming I had a c-card until the tank monkeys wanted to see an actual card, 17 years and around 1000 dives later.



Bob

 

[David Wilson]

When I joined my university "sub-aqua" club in the mid-1960s, the first pool session ended with the appearance of a well-dressed man with a slightly "spivvish" demeanour. For those who don't know what a "spiv" is, it's a World War II vintage British expression for a black-marketeer, who used to be attired like this before revealing his armful of "dodgy" wristwatches to an interested client:

Anyway, he had a good selection of Typhoon fins, masks and snorkels, which was, and remains, a very good British brand in underwater swimming equipment. We all ordered a set of basic gear and we were allowed to try out the masks and fins in the pool to check that they fitted. We placed our orders and he departed, returning the following week with our purchases. We never saw him again. One of the novice divers spoke up to ask the session supervisor for more information about the seller. "Oh, he runs a clothes store in town, specialising in lurid neckties" was the response. It took all sorts back then to purvey snorkel gear to the public. Others might have stocked up at their local Woolworths. Specialist diving equipment stores were pretty thin on the ground back in the 1960s. My home town of Newcastle had a motor-cycle dealership with a sideline in diving gear. We envied London, which had Lillywhites, a 5-floor sports equipment store in Piccadilly Circus that issued from the early 1950s an annual mail-order diving gear catalogue to drool over:

Sadly, the store is a shadow of its former self nowadays selling, like most sporting goods stores hereabouts, mainly athletic-looking clothing to people who never look as though they ever do any exercise but like the "sporty" look as streetwear. Last time I visited there was little or no diving gear beyond a handful of plastic-encased snorkel kits.

Returning to the subject of training manuals for apprentice divers, we knew nothing in the 1960s of American books such as "The (New) Science of Skin and Scuba Diving". UK divers belonged to one of the constituent local clubs of the British Sub Aqua Club (BSAC), which is still going strong. From the 1950s onwards, the BSAC published a diving manual like this:

and updated it very regularly. I have several editions.