The first "single hose" regulators date back to early 1947. These were home
made contraptions built from leftover aircraft parts and such. Many of these
designers and developers went on to become legends in the diving industry. E. R.
Cross had an adaption of an oxygen bottle and an aircraft oxygen regulator in
1947. It took 20 years of double hose regulator designs to finally convince the
diving public that single hose was here to stay.
Al O'Neil, who had held the first NAUI course in Chicago and had built the
Popular Mechanics regulator, had an idea, about two hose regulators which by then
were passe. He was Sportsways representative in the Midwest where he got laid
off in a cost cutting move. So with some new found time on his hands, he invented
a single hose regulator. He knew of the conflicts between manufacturers of single
hose regulators and those making two hose regulators and the same conflicts in the
diving stores. He thought, why not combine the best of both and develop a
regulator by using the single hose regulator as the basis for the new regulator. Al
O'Neil contacted Bob Dempster, a small manufacturing operation in Oak Lawn,
Illinois. They Started a new company Demone Mfg. Co. The name came from
combining their own names . They then Started to manufacture a "Double Hose-Single Hose regulator" with stage one in the back and stage two at the mouthpiece.
The medium pressure hoses went to the front, one left and another on the right-hand side. The exhaust went in bellowed hoses to about 3/4 way back. Beautiful
regulator. Expensive though, and was still as difficult a thing to get on and off. It
lasted for a year or two, because they just could not sell enough of them to stay in
business. U.S. Divers and Dacor were the two major brands and they had the
market covered. It was very difficult for anyone else to break in to the market.
Another reason for the demise was the rubber used was inferior and deteriorated in
a few months.
Bacteria got into the rubber mouthpieces and made them taste bad. Some of
the regulators had Hookah dive hose attachment points. Not too many people were
Hookah hose divers; primarily stationary divers, such as gold miners in a river or
seafood harvesters at sea. (The compressor is on the shore, and a hose runs out to
the diver in the mining area.
Anybody who wanted to build a two-hose regulator, and was not part of
U.S. Divers, had to pay a royalty to Cousteau. Right from the start there was the
Voit Rubber Company. They were in the diving business. The made the first swim
fins before World War II called the Owen Churchill Swimfin. They also had the first
face masks in this country, so they were in the business. They were a sporting
goods manufacturer. Sporting goods stores would buy one or two of these
regulators all over the country. They would also buy a couple of cylinders and so forth.
Cylinders were no problem for these people. Oxygen cylinders were used and they were
readily available. All the component parts, the metal parts of the regulators were
built in Chicago for U.S. Divers and for Voit, by a company called Demon and Bob
Dempster. Other companies that got involved were Northill, they paid a royalty to
Cousteau.
Healthways had been in the swimming and diving industry for some time.
They made spears. The "Hawaiian Sling" was their claim to fame. It was a long pole
with barbs on the one end, sliding through a handle with a surgical rubber sling
around the bottom of the pole. They also made a two-hose regulator. The only bad
feature about this regulator was that you never knew when you would end up with
water in the mouth. 20 - 30 feet down and all of a sudden you would take a breath
of water instead of air. It always did that. So you had to make what in diver
training is called an "Emergency Swimming Ascent." These regulators were priced
at about $59.00. A lot different from today.
U.S. Divers also came out with a single hose regulator that looked a lot like
the Poseidon regulator from Sweden. The regulator became very hard to
breathe from at a depth of 60 - 70 feet. It was a piston regulator and there was no
push button purge valve. So if you needed air, up you went, from whatever depth
you were at, in another emergency swimming ascent. Kind of interesting dives back
then.
Then there was Arne Post, a multimillionaire clothing store owner in New
York. He had a store in Times Square, and in the back he had a diving store. Post
brought in regulators from Spain. He was sued by U.S. Divers for non payment of
royalties. The upshot of it all was that it was learned that Cousteau had not taken
out a patent on his regulator, and was not due any royalty from anyone.
All these manufacturers were now in competition with each other. As a
matter of fact they are in competition with each other to this day. When one
manufacturer comes out with a new improved product, the next year everybody
else comes out with something similar. For instance Dacor, back in 1961 came out
with glow top snorkel. A snorkel back then was $1.95 and the glow top was
nothing more than a piece of red tape around the top of the snorkel. Industry was
going apes over it. Everybody bought the snorkel.
The sales representative for the Mid West and Canada for U.S. Divers was
John J. Cronin. Cronin was a very good friend of Ralph Erickson. Erickson was a
swimming coach at Loyola University. They discussed this trend in scuba diving
and felt that Dacor could have their $1.95 snorkel and there would be no reason for
U.S. Divers to match it. John Cronin would continue to sell the $50.00 regulators
and the cylinders to accompany the glow top snorkel. Next season though, almost
every manufacturer came out with their version of the glow top snorkel. U.S.
Divers came out with a very good snorkel, very easy breathing and good looking,
but no glow top. After a few years it was discontinued as it did not go over very
well with the public.
If a journalist wanted to write an article or book on the topic of diving and
wanted to include pictures, that person was somewhat relegated to use
manufacturers' pictures because there simply were very few private pictures
available. If there were any private pictures available they were not for sale, so you
had to go to the manufacturers to get the pictures, as they were the only ones that
could afford to generate them. So you got some pictures from Dacor or U.S. Divers
or any of the other manufacturers, and you used that one manufacturer's picture in
the article. The stores carrying other brands would not want to sell the magazine or
book. This showed there was a great deal of animosity between the different
manufacturers and their outlets.
Manufacturers would not even talk to each other. Kind of hilarious in one
way but sickening in another way. It personified itself in the diving stores. Diving
stores have always been very competitive. One diving store does not like another
diving store. In fact 20 years ago, even 10 years ago, you might have a dive store
owner come in and try and discredit another dive store in the vicinity. Most of them
have become quite sophisticated though. They don't do that kind of thing any
more. But it used to be a way a way of life. When you went into one store, you
just about had to listen to a tirade on how bad the other diving stores in the vicinity
are.
This conflict personified itself in the two hose regulator. In about 1960, one
of the manufacturers, Healthways had a president. This president knew he was
about to be ousted by the board of directors. He had a very good engineer Samuel
Lecocq, who came up with the first version of the single hose regulator as it is
known today. It was going to be marketed by Healthways. Nobody knew anything
about it except the president, the sales manager, the engineer and the guy who
brought in the Cressi from Italy. The four of them left Healthways and formed their
own company, Sportsways. They came out with a new single hose regulator the
"Waterlung". A beautiful regulator, which breathed just perfectly.
When the single hose regulator came out, U.S. Divers and Dacor pretty well
controlled the two hose market. They had the biggest diving stores in their chain of
distributors and dealers. Sportsways went to all the other non-distributor dealers
and gave them distributor pricing on the single hose regulators. If you were a dive
store owner who sold single hose regulators and somebody came in to buy a two-hose regulator, you gave them a very good sales pitch on why to buy a single hose
regulator. Well the customer who was trained on a double hose regulator did not
want a single hose regulator. So they would leave the store and go back to buy a
double hose regulator. A "single hose regulator person" who was trained on a single
hose regulator scuba unit, who would venture over to a double hose regulator
store, would virtually take his life in his own hands if he asked for a single hose
regulator. It was almost a hilarious situation.
A year later Healthways came out with a single hose regulator. Then came
Scubapro's version, and Sportsways' version. Sportsway's regulator was
beautiful. Healthways introduced a less expensive version about $10.00 - $12.00
less than the others. Now, a Sportsways' regulator had a purge button that stuck
out, while the Healthways purge button was indented. Certain stores sold
Healthways while other stores carried Sportsways, yet other stores still handled
double hose regulators.
