As it turned out in 1941-42, the only underwater demolition teams, were the
Italians. They were called "Navy frogmen," because of their fins and their ability to
stay under water for long periods of time. The Italians sided with the Germans.
They went into Gibraltar and sank a bunch of British ships. The Americans overran
parts of Italy and captured them. The Germans were then without frogmen, so they
turned to France, which was also occupied by the Germans. They knew the French
Navy was diddling around with self-contained breathing apparatuses. They called
the French admiralty and demanded that they come up with an underwater
breathing apparatus because they need one in short order.
The admiralty went to Air Liquid France, which was actually the original
parent company of U.S. Divers. The chairman sent them a man named Emile
Gagnan. Gagnan was a French-Canadian gas engineer. Gagnan was famous for
developing the oxygen breathing unit for the French Air Force. He also did
something else during World War II that you may not know anything about.
Gagnan had invented a demand regulator for a wood burning charcoal gas
generator used in the automobile industry of Europe during the World War II.
Charcoal gas became an excellent fuel for cars. In a similar fashion as the LPG
fueled cars of today. The only difference was the gas cylinder. The fuel supply for
Gagnan's regulator consisted of 1/4 cord of wood in the trunk.
Gagnan took the basic idea of the first regulators that were invented in the
late 1800's, then added information from a butane regulating device and came up
with the demand regulator for underwater breathing of compressed air.
Gagnan went to work on the regulator. Early trials in January and February of
1943 led to the final development of a two-hose concept with an inhalation hose, a
mouth piece, and exhalation hose with a flapper type exhaust valve. Early patents
were taken out on this hose and exhaust system. The regulator itself was not really
patentable.
Jaques-Yves Cousteau, a Lieutenant in the French Navy, was an avid skin
diver and an amateur underwater photographer down in Nice, near Monte Carlo
where the French Navy was located. The French Navy was inactive due to the
German occupation of France. Cousteau's main goal in life was photography, and it
may still be, looking at much of the production that he has been part of. He
volunteered to test the regulator. After some near disastrous results, they came up
with a compressed air regulator. It became known as the Cousteau-Gagnan
regulator. Everyone knows who Jaques-Yves Cousteau was, and "nobody" has ever
heard of Gagnan. Cousteau in capital bold letters and Gagnan in small letters.
Cousteau was a very lucid individual, personable and charming and his
commander in 1943 studdered. The commander needed someone who could
present the scuba unit to the French admiralty. Cousteau's rise to fame came
more due to his studdering commander and who felt that he could not present the
project in its best interest. So Cousteau was sent up to present the regulator to the
French and German admiralty in Paris. There was a big party for the occasion and
Cousteau was there, met the woman of his dreams and later married her. That is
how Cousteau got involved in the scuba unit.
This device also used cylinders of compressed air, but had a regulator
attached to adjust the air pressure automatically to the diver's needs at depth. The
diver breathed through a rubber mouthpiece clamped between the teeth, and the
regulator automatically increased the air pressure to equalize pressure inside the
body with increasing water pressure on the outside. This eliminated the need for a
cumbersome pressurized suit.
Worn with the rubber foot flippers developed by Commander Louis DeCorlieu
and a diving mask, which was a direct descendant of the goggles and masks worn
by native divers in the Pacific and in the Mediterranean for centuries, this apparatus
allowed mankind to dive with new freedom and safety. This was the start of the
Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus (SCUBA) gear as we know it
today. Further trials were conducted to depths down to 130 feet by Cousteau and
his diving partners, Frederic Dumas and Philippe Tailliez. Somewhat later Frederic
Dumas reached 210 feet.
Another of Jaques-Yves Cousteau's contemporaries was Austrian Hans
Hass, an underwater photographer of great talent. I was born and raised in Sweden
and I heard of Hans Hass long before I knew of Cousteau. Hans Hass operated out
of Austria-Germany, completely independent of Cousteau. At that time Cousteau
was busy handling the business side of scuba diving, while Hans Hass and his
wife Lotte were photographing and filming sharks in the Red Sea. His 1951
publication "Diving to Adventure" became a bestseller with a series of firsthand
stories of diving with whales and sharks.
The following year, 1952 Cousteau publishes "Silent World" another best
seller on the beginning of sport diving.
Dr. Eugenie Clark writes of herself in 1953 as "Lady With a Spear"; thus
popularizing the idea of women as divers.
The first U.S. diving manual "Underwater Safety" was written by E. R. Cross
in 1953.
