Vintage weight belt military 1940's?
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OP
AfterDark
Contributor
I didn't mean to imply that the historical society purchased it at a surplus store. A huge amount of surplus equipment was available after the war, well into the 1960s. A lot of divers left the Navy and purchased surplus gear to start commercial diving companies. The natural evolution is that the gear was repaired and modified over time. I would not be the least bit surprised if the belt started life as Navy issue and morphed into what you photographed after years of hard use. The green on the buckle suggests that it is made of tinned bronze. The buckle itself may be the only part of the original belt left. The brass/bronze buckles last forever.
Most of the commercial diving schools around the country in the 50s and 60s were also started by retired Navy divers. Their equipment preferences would be passed onto students who never saw military service, but started their own companies.
OP
AfterDark
Contributor
If you look closely, there is a number on the buckle. That number is:
6-B-3914N
I tried looking it up, but could find nothing on a Google search. But the fact that it has a "N" at the end indicates to me that it came from the U.S. Navy. I'm also pretty sure this is either aluminum or steel, and not brass. I have seen these before on aircraft. But the stitching shown on the webbing indicates to me that it is not home-made. It would have been made in a Navy shop where there was access to a good stitching machine (for lack of a better word), and someone took a lot of care in the stitching. I would guess that this was someone who had a lot of experience who made this belt. That would indicate either a Navy shop of some sort or an avionics shop which dealt with personal protective equipment.
SeaRat
When I first took up SCUBA I recall my instructor spending like an hour (longer than a modern PadI class) going on a rant about those buckles like that. It impressed me to this day about the need to be able to dump weight (on the surface) to establish buoyancy and considering that in the 66 to 68 era when I was learning to dive, there were no BCs, that was important.
I doubt those are aluminum or brass, they would be steel and I recall them rusting badly. Some people bought ammo belts with the same buckle and put rocks, sinkers, whatever ever in them. I always thought it was a bit farm technology. But, in those days, there were no LDS on every corner, no wuh.wuh.wuh and the Army-Navy store was as good as any place to buy cool military looking crap to dive with since it was within bicycle range and Sears/Wards was not.
N
I doubt those are aluminum or brass, they would be steel and I recall them rusting badly. Some people bought ammo belts with the same buckle and put rocks, sinkers, whatever ever in them. I always thought it was a bit farm technology. But, in those days, there were no LDS on every corner, no wuh.wuh.wuh and the Army-Navy store was as good as any place to buy cool military looking crap to dive with since it was within bicycle range and Sears/Wards was not.
N
Certainly possible but this level of sewing was also common in the commercial diving industry. Divers would take the gear to a shoe cobbler (talk about a disappearing trade) for sewing. This was well before my time, but my understanding is the Navy didnt tolerate much in the way of gear modifications even back to the 1920s they were totally tight-assed about it while I was there until being assigned to Submarine Development Group I, where we didnt use any standard issue gear.
The only people who could be inventive were assigned to EDU (Naval Experimental Diving Unit). I wonder if John Powers was assigned to EDU? Even then, I doubt they would cast their own weights when they had so many of the Navy-standard weights around.
Does anyone have a 1924, 1943, and/or 1952 Navy Diving Manual? Like an idiot, I threw my 52 out when the 63 came out. It may show this belt in the lightweight diving section (not sure when the lightweight gear was introduced). There could have been a version of this belt with cotton webbing and brass grommets.
Attached is a page from the 1962 diving manual and it shows the belt and suspenders made from leather. The way it attaches is different from the Powers belt, probably uses copper rivets.
AfterDark: Can you get enough access to the belt to figure out if it is tin-plated Bronze or Aluminum? I agree with John, the buckle was almost certainly originally made for and sold to the Navy, especially if it is Bronze. Interesting research project.
Edit: The lightweight belt from Desco appears to be the same as in the 1962 Diving Manual
DESCO Commercial Quick Release Belt | DESCO Diving Equipment and Supply Company Milwaukee, Wisconsin
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I saw a guy on a boat that used one ,, he said it wa ww2 and perhaps hardhat suit weight belt.
I have been having some fun with this, and decided to go into Google Patents to see what I could find. Here's the closest so far:
https://www.google.com/patents/US2458810
SeaRat
https://www.google.com/patents/US2458810
SeaRat
captain
Contributor
Section 2, page 26 of the 1958 edition of the Navy diving manual shows the lightweight rig weight belt which has the latch and link buckle and also a crotch strap. There are rectangular weights bolted vertically to it. The belt is wider and of a different design that shown in the OP's photos. Also shown is the common 8 pocket ammo belt with rectangular weights in the pockets.
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