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On Sun, 26 Nov 1995 gmiiii@in*.co* wrote:

>  Nick, the origianl "Benjamin" is the one with a center post and
> a righ post, no isolator.

Thanks.  So I do have an original style Benjamin manifold.  I also own one of
the newer ones from Divers Supply, with an isolator.  My understanding was
that the major improvement that Dr. Benjamin made over the old Sea Hunt style
manifolds was the addition of the second block, with two shutoff valves, so
that the gas in the tanks could be made available in the case of regulator
shutdown failure via a second regulator. 

> That came later with the Sherwood D.I.N.
> version, and then the others all came out with a left and right post,
> like Sherwood, but with the option of a bar or an isolator. The
> term "Benjamin" is just our way of recognizing that Dr. Benjamin
> went to the trouble of making this for for us, like Greg
> Flannigan with the "Flannigan" plate, which we call a backplate,
> or the "Goodman handle" on our dive lights. Anything that fits 
> these descriptions generally gets referred to by the originator's
> name. We now have Gavin lights, Gavin scooters, Main spools, things
> like that, but thee items are exact in description rather than 
> generic. - George

Thanks.  I guess that the next question is, does the WKPP dive with or 
without an isolator, and if with, is it open or closed under normal 
circumstances.  

Also, I've seen a lot of folks diving with cages over their regulator
assemblies on doubles.  These are strong, welded cages which protect the
valves from impact while still allowing reaching to turn things on and off,
or so I'm told.  The primary purpose is to keep regs from being impacted and
to keep people from turning off valves due to surface friction (we have had
one report here of such a mishap - and I've heard others).  How does a cage
affect the argument that manifolds are fragile? 

Is this a bad or good idea?

I'm becoming convinced that both sides are right.   Both have managed to 
present good arguments why they are right, and both have described 
reasonable diving procedures in which these planned actions sound 
good and work. 

I recall having an argument a couple of years ago with sone idiot on scuba-l
as to whether it was appropriate to put air in your BC if you were correctly
weighted.  Turns out this guy was a tropical diver who never dove with
significant neoprene and didn't understand how much a 7mm wetsuit would
compress at depth.  I suspect that the folks who have talked about different
environments have hit the nail on the head.  You can't do a reliable buddy
system in 1 m visibility without a buddy line or constant contact.  Few
people will maintain real buddy contact under those circumstances, so you
plan for solo diving.  You have to plan to dive solo, even if you enter and
exit the water with a buddy.  In a cave, your continuious line doubles as
your buddy line.  The right discipline is to use the buddy system. 

The different styles require different equipment, different approaches, 
and so forth.

Nick Simicich - njs@sc*.em*.ne* - (last choice) njs@bc*.vn*.ib*.co*
http://scifi.emi.net/njs.html -- Stop by and Light Up The World!

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