Aqua-Lung

For the firm named Aqualung, see Aqua Lung America. For other uses, see Aqualung (disambiguation).

Aqualung was the original name for the first open-circuit free-swimming underwater breathing sets; the type most familiar at the time was the twin-hose open-circuit scuba, as developed by Emile Gagnan and Jacques-Yves Cousteau in 1943, and since then made by various manufacturers with varying design details and number of cylinders. It consists of a high pressure diving cylinder and a diving regulator that supplies the diver with breathing gas at ambient pressure, via a demand valve. Before that, there were a few attempts at constant-flow compressed-air breathing sets.

Open/closed circuit

Classic twin-hose Cousteau-type aqualung

The original "Aqua-Lung" was an "open-circuit" design, so called because gas flows from the cylinder, to the diver, out into the water. Other scuba gear, invented earlier than the "Aqua-Lung", are now termed "closed circuit" or "rebreather", as gas flows from the cylinder, to the diver, through a scrubber (which removes carbon dioxide), back to a secondary bag, and back to the diver again, in a relatively closed loop; this design is commonly called a rebreather, and its old pure-oxygen form is regarded as archaic and risky when used underwater.

The Aqua Lung was not the first, but is was the most popular. Georges Commeinhes developed a fire fighter's breathing apparatus that was used by the French Navy and applied to underwater use. However, it required the manipulation of an exhaust valve when the diver changed positions. The twin hose Aqua Lung, also known as a double hose, is not the type used today. Modern scuba is based upon the design of Australian Ted Eldred, who developed the Porpoise scuba in Melbourne commonly called the single hose scuba. The modern version was first known as a mouthpiece regulator, as it separates the reduction valve on the tank with a mouth piece demand valve. The two are linked by a low pressure hose.

"Tadpoles"

In the early years of scuba diving in Britain, "tadpole" was a nickname for a type of diving gear that had two meanings:

• A type of ex-RAF pilot's oxygen cylinder with a tapering end, which was often used as an aqualung cylinder in the 1960's and earlier.
• An early make of Siebe Gorman aqualung with a twin-hose regulator and two air cylinders, with both ends hemispherical, 13 inches long and 7 inches in diameter. Siebe Gorman's trade catalog describing this set showed two sorts of diver wearing this set, both with weighted boots, and no mention of free-swimming. A 1950's Royal Navy diving manual also said that the aqualung was (only) for bottom-walking diving. Siebe Gorman had no idea then of sport diving, or was against sport diving, but expected aqualungs to be used for light commercial diving. Later, as is well known, most divers were free-swimming scuba divers; bottom-walkers became a tiny minority.

Trademark issues

Aqualung and Aqua Lung are registered trademarks for SCUBA-diving breathing equipment. That trade name is owned in the United States by the firm formerly known as U.S. Divers. The term was in use before the trade mark was registered by Rene Bussoz. Rene owned a sporting goods store called Rene Sports in Los Angeles. He obtained a contract with the French firm L'Air Liquide to import the new scuba into the USA for sale on the west coast. SPACO had the contract for the east coast. He changed the name of his company to US Divers and registered the name Aqua Lung. This turned out to be a wise move because when the French company decided not to renew his 5 year contract, no one had of heard of their product, but everyone was familiar with the names he had registered. He sold the company and the trade names for a handsome profit and returned to France. The name US Divers sounded very official and very American, but it was owned by a Frenchman and sold to French company.

L'Air Liquide held the patent on the original "Aqualung" also written as Aqua Lung, until the patent expired some time around 1960–63. The term "aqualung" as far as is known first appeared in print on page 3 of Jacques-Yves Cousteau's first book, The Silent World in 1953. Public interest in scuba diving began around 1953, in response to a National Geographical Society Magazine article in English-speaking counties, and in France a movie, and perhaps The Silent World. As with some other registered trademarks, the term "aqualung" became a genericized trademark in English-speaking countries, as a result of much use by the public and in publications including in the BSAC's official diving manuals. Presumably lawyers for Cousteau or Air Liquide could have slowed or stopped this genericization by taking prompt action, but this seems not to have been done in Britain, where Siebe Gorman had the British rights to the trade name and the patent.

In the United States the term Aqualung was popularized by the popular television series Sea Hunt (1958), which never said that an aqualung could be called anything else or could be made by anyone else, but the company that supplied the fearless Mike Nelson. Voit provided most of the diving equipment used in the series, but actual Aqua Lungs appeared in the early episodes. Aqualungs and the word "aqualung" were also popularized in English-speaking countries by a 1953 National Geographic Society Magazine article about Cousteau's underwater archaeological expedition to Grand Congloué. The word "aqualung" was commonly used in speech and in publications (including the British Sub-Aqua Club's official diving manual) as a term for divers' open-circuit demand-valve-controlled breathing apparatus (even after Air Liquide's patent expired and other manufacturers started making identical equipment), and occasionally also for rebreathers, and in figurative uses such as "the water spider's aqualung of air bubbles". The word entered the Russian language as the generic noun акваланг ("akvalang").

In the United States, U.S. Divers managed to keep "Aqualung" as a trademark, and the acronym "SCUBA" ("Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", originating in the United States Navy, where it meant a frogman's rebreather) became the generic term for that type of open-circuit breathing set, and soon the acronym SCUBA became a noun — "scuba" — all in lower-case. "Scuba" was a trademark for a time, used by Healthways, now known as Scubapro, one of U.S. Divers' competitors.

In Britain Siebe Gorman (who held the rights to the tradename "Aqualung") made no serious attempt to control use of the word, and "aqualung" remained the common public generic word for that sort of scuba set, including in the British Sub-Aqua Club's official publications, for many years.

Presumably, anyone who uses "aqualung" generically now can expect a polite but firm "cease and desist" letter from a law firm representing U.S. Divers.

Aqua Lung America now makes rebreathers whose tradenames or catalog descriptions include the word "Aqualung".

Popular culture

The classic Jethro Tull song Aqualung and the album of the same name, were named after the apparatus. Also English singer-songwriter, Matthew Hales uses the stage name Aqualung.

See also

• Timeline of underwater technology#The diving regulator reappears for details of this development.
• Scuba sets for description of modern breathing sets.
• See Frogman#Mistakes in fiction for common mistakes in depicting scuba gear.

External links

• Aqua Lung manufacturers site (English, French, German, Italian, Czech, and Japanese language versions available)
• Aqua Lung (Also known as Mistral Regulator)
• Two Jacques Cousteau Aqua Lungs are shown in this 1950's video recorded on the island of Maui.