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At 12:19 PM 10/16/95 BST, A.Appleyard wrote:
> (1) It mentioned the Rouquayrol-Denayrouze 1860's aqualung-like backpack=
air
>supply for a suit-and-helmet, with a 30-bar backpack air sphere, and a=
genuine
>demand valve that long ago. As regards why the design didn't survive until
>proper gas cylinders could be made: reading `20000 Leagues Under the Sea'
>shows that Jules Verne had no conception of a demand value; but the video
>showed an illustration from an early edition of `20000 Leagues Under the=
Sea'
>that showed the Nautilus's divers with correctly drawn=
Rouquayrol-Denayrouze
>sets and hardhat-type suits but no airlines to the Nautilus or the surface.=
In
>the book Jules Verne wildly exaggerated the dive duration of those sets to=
6
>to 8 hours. But he <did> know about the habit of divers being unwilling to
>come out of the water into rain so they wouldn't get wet.
Jules Vernes DID use the Rouquayrol-Denayrouze "A=E9rophore"* for 20 000
Leagues. However, he "improved" it by increasing the tank pressure, so the
Nautilus divers did not need the air line that was needed by the
"A=E9rophore". The tank allowed either the diver to disconnect temporarly=
the
air line, and to do an emercency ascent to the surface in case of air
delivery failure.
Interestingly, the term "regulator" was coined by Rouquayrol and
Denayrouze ("R=E9gulateur", in french) and is the direct origin for the
current regulator. However, the current French word for a regulator is
"D=E9tendeur", which exactly means "[a device that] reduces [gas] pressure
gently".
* Man under the sea (Man explores the sea in England), 1956 by James Dugan,
p. 28, 29.
By the way, this book mentions *A LOT* of "early" (that is, around the turn
of the century) NITROX diving. It also says that "Mrs Haldane 'dived' (in a
pot) to 30 meters on oxygen 17 times" (p. 45) and that a test diver was
narced by oxygen while trying Heliox (p. 41).
...
> (4) It described Le Prieur's French constant volume sets invented for=
sport
>diving in the 1930's in the south of France. The video showed the cylinder
>worn valve forwards on the front of the abdomen with the rear of the=
cylinder
>projecting parallel to the legs like the thigh of a 3rd leg. Likely that
>position was to avoid skew drag caused by the other position that I have=
seen
>Le Prieur set cylinders in, which was diagonally across the chest and=
belly.
>All that to get the cylinder valve within easy reach of the diver while
>swimming.
The Le Prieur's diving gear used a welding regulator coupled to a
Michelin tire-inflating high pressure (some 100-150 bar) tank. However, the
constant flow regulator had to be constantly adjusted manually for the
depth, and the air flowing into the full-face mask while the diver exhaled
was completely wasted. So, the tank (worn on the diver's chest) only lasted
about 10 minutes at 10 meters.
Around 1922, Yves Le Prieur actually founded the first ever sport SCUBA
diving club, Le club des sous l'eau, which still exists around Cannes/Nice.
I have seen a picture of Yves Leprieur diving along with a 3-4 year old
girl, whose mask was attached to his tank, most probably the oldest picture
of an octopus in use!!!
Even though the fin was invented around this time, Le Prieur divers did
not use them.
Cousteau did try the Le Prieur diving gear, but he was reportedly not
impressed.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Here is my intelligence test: (Email me your answers...)
If you were given ONLY ONE SHOT at a machine that can perfectly
duplicate ANYTHING AT ALL WITHOUT RESTRICTIONS (down to the
subatomic level), what is the (only) thing that you would copy?
---- Marc Dufour ---- [\] ---- http://www.cam.org/~mdufour ----
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