Aqua-Lung

Aqua-Lung[1] was the first open-circuit, self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (or "scuba") to achieve worldwide popularity and commercial success. This class of equipment is now commonly referred to as a diving regulator,[2] or demand valve. The Aqua-Lung was invented in France during the winter of 1942–1943 by two Frenchmen: the engineer Émile Gagnan and the Naval Lieutenant (French: "lieutenant de vaisseau") Jacques Cousteau. It allowed Cousteau and Gagnan to film and explore underwater more easily.[3]

For the firms named Aqua Lung, see Aqua Lung/La Spirotechnique and Aqua Lung America. For other uses, see Aqualung (disambiguation).
Classic twin-hose Cousteau-type aqualung

Trademark issues

Aqualung, Aqua-Lung, and Aqua Lung are registered trademarks for scuba diving breathing equipment. That trade name was originally owned in the United States by a company known as U.S. Divers (now Aqua Lung America). The term was in use before the trademark was registered by René Bussoz, who owned a sporting goods store called René Sports in Los Angeles. He obtained a contract with the French firm Air Liquide, the parent company of Aqua Lung/La Spirotechnique, to import the new scuba equipment into the United States for sale on the Pacific coast (SPACO had the contract for the Atlantic coast). Bussoz changed the name of his company to U.S. 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 five-year contract, no one had even heard of their product, but everyone was familiar with the names he had registered. Bussoz sold the company and the trade names for a handsome profit, returning to France. The name US Divers sounded very official and very American, but it was owned by a Frenchman and sold to a French company.

Air Liquide held the patent on the original "Aqualung" (also written as "Aqua-Lung" or "Aqua Lung") until the patent expired sometime around 1960 to 1963. 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 use of the word "aqualung", and public interest in Aqualungs and scuba diving, were started around 1953 in English-speaking counties by a National Geographical Society Magazine article about Cousteau's underwater archaeological expedition to Grand Congloué. In France, aqualung diving was popularized by Cousteau's movie Épaves, while his book The Silent World also helped significantly.

As with some other registered trademarks, the term "aqualung" became a genericized trademark in English-speaking countries as a result of common use by the public and in publications, including 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 held the British rights to both the trade name and the patent.

In the United States, the term aqualung was popularized by the popular television series Sea Hunt (1958). This series never said that an aqualung could be called anything else, or made by anyone else, but the company that supplied Mike Nelson, the lead character in the series. The Voit Rubber Corporation provided most of the diving equipment used in this series, but actual Aqua-Lungs appeared in early episodes. The word "aqualung" was commonly used in speech and in publications as a term for an open-circuit, demand valve-controlled breathing apparatus (even after Air Liquide's patent expired and other manufacturers started making identical equipment), 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"). That word was taken into Lithuanian as the generic noun "akvalangas"; "langas" happens to be Lithuanian for "window", giving a literal meaning "aqua-window".

In the United States, U.S. Divers managed to keep "Aqualung" as a trademark. The acronym "SCUBA", or "Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", originated in the United States Navy, where it meant a frogman's rebreather. Scuba 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 the competitors of U.S. Divers.

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 a common public generic word for that sort of apparatus - including in the British Sub-Aqua Club's official publications – for many years.

Aqua Lung America, the current name of the U.S. Divers company, now makes rebreathers whose tradenames or catalog descriptions include the word "Aqualung". The name U.S. Divers is now used as a trademark by Aqua Lung America for its line of snorkeling equipment.

See also
  • Timeline of underwater technology, The diving regulator reappears for details of the development of a similar regulator, not related to the Aqua-Lung
  • Timeline of underwater technology, World War II for details of the development of the Aqua-Lung
  • Scuba sets for description of modern breathing sets

References
  1. After Cousteau himself, who had coined the word, the spelling was originally Aqua-Lung. See Jacques-Yves Cousteau & Frédéric Dumas, Le Monde du silence, Éditions de Paris, Paris, 1953, Dépôt légal 1er Trimestre 1954 - Édition N° 228 – Impression N° 741 (in French)
  2. Both regulators—the one from 1860 invented by Benoît Rouquayrol and the twin-hose Cousteau-type invented in 1943 by Gagnan and Cousteau—received, among some others, the name of régulateur (French for "regulator"). For the 1860 régulateur see the page of the Rouquayrol-Denayrouze apparatus in the Musée du Scaphandre website (a diving museum in Espalion, south of France) Archived June 30, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. For the word régulateur as used by Cousteau himself just check page 8 in the first French edition of Cousteau's book The Silent World: Jacques-Yves Cousteau & Frédéric Dumas, Le Monde du silence, Éditions de Paris, Paris, 1953, Dépôt légal 1er Trimestre 1954 – Édition N° 228 – Impression N° 741 (in French).
  3. Than, Ker (11 June 2010). "Jacques Cousteau Centennial: What He Did, Why He Matters". news.nationalgeographic.com. Retrieved 3 March 2016.
  4. Bahuet, Eric (19 October 2003). "Plongee souterraine - avec ou sans bulle?". FFESSM. Retrieved 3 March 2016.
  5. List of French companies which produced the Rouquayrol and Denayroze patents (Association les pieds lourds website, in French). Archived 2012-04-02 at the Wayback Machine
  6. Jacques-Yves Cousteau with Frédéric Dumas, The Silent World (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1953).
  7. The Musée du Scaphandre website (a diving museum in Espalion, south of France) mentions how Gagnan and Cousteau adapted a Rouquayrol-Denayrouze apparatus by means of the Air Liquide company (in French). Archived 2012-10-30 at the Wayback Machine
  8. Description of the Rouquayrol-Denayrouze apparatus in the Musée du Scaphandre website (a diving museum in Espalion, south of France)
  9. Cousteau quickly describes the two Aqua-Lung prototypes used to shoot the film Épaves in 1943, when Cousteau mentions his cylinders' highest pressure (in French).
  10. Capitaine de frégate PHILIPPE TAILLIEZ, Plongées sans câble, Arthaud, Paris, January 1954, Dépôt légal 1er trimestre 1954 – Édition N° 605 – Impression N° 243 (in French)
  11. "Jacques Cousteau, French ocean explorer and engineer". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 3 March 2016.
  12. "Sport Diver". Popular Mechanics. Vol. 94 no. 4. Hearst Magazines. October 1950. p. 76. ISSN 0032-4558.
  • Aqua Lung manufacturers site (English, French, German, Italian, Czech, and Japanese language versions available)
  • Aqua Lung (Also known as "Mistral Regulator" because of a particular model from 1955. The original Aqua-Lung was the CG45 model from 1945)
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.