Triple Tank, Triple Manifolds!

[caveseeker7]

These are pictures of Jean-Michel Cousteau's old unit with titanium tanks.
It's now part of the Nick Icorn collection.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

That is surprising; the JMC set looks like either doubles or quadruples, not triples. The ones I saw on the video, and in the books, were definately triple tank sets. I hesitate to post any photos of them as they are copyrighted, and I don't want to abuse that.

John

 

[pescador775]

I have a custom set of triples. Many years ago, I acquired three 35 cf aluminum tanks originally used in the UDS-1. These are 3000 psi, about 22 inches tall, 5 inch or so dia, flat bottom with 1 inch NPS, O ring. I had several custom parts machined or bent: three bushings, 1 "NPS X 1/2 " NPT, two triple steel bands; shortened the arms on a Nemrod triple reserve manifold to fit. Added Scubapro backpack, the type from 1971, very compact and stylish. Bolts to bands with original SP bracket. Still use it with R Aquamaster sometimes. I built brackets to hold two bullet weights low between the cylinders, for balance. Neat looking. People ask if it's 'factory' made equipment or 'where did you get it".

 

[Turtleguy9]

Aloha Pescador, any chance you could post a photo, of your triple set?
Turtleguy

 

[rndboulder]

Here is the low down on the Cousteau Tanks. The bottom line is that there were several set ups used. There is a common misunderstanding that the triple set sold by US Divers as the Advanced Breathing System (ABS) in the 80's was used by the teams. It was not. It had the angled manifold and either a blue or silver plastic shell. The manifold was used by the teams in the 90's as mentioned earlier. Here we go:
The team used French triples originally, and then later went to using standard doubles for a while. During the Conshelf II experiment teams used a four tank rig with 3000psi steel tanks with two inverted tanks and two with the standard orientation. The tanks were connected by stainless steel plumbing. Conshelf III used a triple set with the outer tanks inverted and the same plumbing. With the launch of the Undersea World of JC Cousteau developed the first housing. It housed 4 steel tanks in a yellow housing and featured chest mounted royal mistrals also encased in a sort of breast plate. Other innovations at this time included an underwater communications system and an early version of the helmet light combination. During the Cousteau Odyssey series the team began using a double inverted tank set encased in a yellow housing that was mass produced in limited quantities by Technisub (about 1975). This set was later painted silver. It was this rig that saw the most use and was used into the 90's. During the Britannic dive and other deep dives the team used sets of very large triples and a technisub angled manifolds. They were approx steel 72's x 3. For a brief time the teams when back to a three tank set. This was around the time of the Cuba expedition. It consisted of two inverted tanks and one standard. Cousteau would use this set along with a chest mounted royal mistral until the end of his diving days. Now the set in the earlier photos, these were developed for the Rediscovery of the World Series. It is a set of four 5000psi! tanks in a partial silver housing. Two inverted and two standard. The tanks were run at 5000psi until they had one explode on the Calypso and JM required 2500psi from then on. They had trouble with corrosion due to the alloys and the high psi. They then used the triple set mentioned earlier with the angled manifold and no housing. This set is used today by JM and the Ocean Futures Society with a custom fiberglass shells. I believe they are going to mostly rebreathers these days. I have done extensive research and will likely have it largely documented on a new website that should be up by the end of Aug. I will also have an updated reproduction of the two tank housing completed by then. It houses double aluminum 63’s and used a std USD solid bar manifold. It will work with double hose regulators. They are turning out very well and will eventually be available in both their yellow and silver incarnations. Stay tuned. . . Thanks to the Cousteau Society and Stephen Arrington for providing valuable information and photo contributions to the project.
-Ryan

 

[pescador775]

Aloha Pescador, any chance you could post a photo, of your triple set?
Turtleguy

I'm not able to do it. Maybe someone can tell me how to paste an image into the message. Someone told me about 'thumbnails' but it didn't take.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

pescador775,

This stuff was confusing to me too. What you have to do is to hit the button "Go Advanced" to get to the advanced area for posting. If you do that, you can do all sorts of things, like post an icon or smily

You can also post a photo, by going to the "Attachments Manager" and clicking on it. This will bring up another screen, and there is a "brose" button there. If you click that button, you can got to your own computer's photos. By uploading those photos, you can put them into the post. I think it's called the "upload manager." Once you've selected the photo to post, click on the "upload" button, and then on the button to finish or close the transaction (I cannot see the screen, so this part may not be quite right).

I've uploaded a photo of me wearing the UDS-1 system, which is the triple tank system you discussed and modified in your posting. Now, if you find some time, we'd all like to see your triples that you made from this system.

SeaRat

PS--The first time I tried, I used a photo that did not have a .jpg extension, and it was disallowed.

 

[pescador775]

Aloha Pescador, any chance you could post a photo, of your triple set?
Turtleguy

Here is the photo.
Pesky

 

[pescador775]

Thanks for the help, John. I also had to reset my camera to reduce resolution and get the file to below 200 kB. Arghh.

 

[Turtleguy9]

Aloha Pescador
Thanks for the post and photos. I love the setup.
Turtleguy