In the beginning of the XIXth century self diving apparatus were built using an air-compressed tank. To breathe, the diver must slackened air with a tap and sent it either directly in a mask or in a bag on chest. The St Simon Sicard's apparatus used oxygen and was the first rebreather scuba in history.

That apparatus was the first regulator in history but it didn't was a self diving system because it was necessary to supply it with air by a pump near the surface. Because of the absence of an air compressed tank to supply apparatus with air, it was very dangerous below some 3 or 4 m depth and it was no doubt the reason of the failure in its development. Indeed, in a diving to 20 or 30 m depth, the diver hadn't air reserve to go up in case of problem, as the risk to have a water pressure higher than air pressure supplied by the pump.

In 1838 a similar patent was filled by William Newton in England. We have grounds to think Guillaumet, because of long time of waiting period to fill patent in France, asked for Newton to fill his own patent in England where waiting period was shorter. Successively he secured for him the exclusive rights on the patent filled by Newton.

That regulator was rebuilt by American divers in XXth century and it perfectly worked. If it was probably built in 1838, the tries planed by the French Navy for an unknown cause never were made and the apparatus never was marketed.

list

list

the diving apparatus ( 1864, june) La nécessité de protéger le plongeur du froid conduit Rouquayrol et Denayrouze à créer un habit utilisant la toile caoutchoutée des scaphandriers. Le plongeur est équipé de chaussures à semelles de plomb d'un poids de 8 kgs chacune.

list

Yves Paul Gaston Le Prieur 1885 - 1963 Lorsqu'en 1926 le commandant Yves Le Prieur s'intéresse à la plongée subaquatique la marine a oublié l'existence du scaphandre autonome, ce qui lui laisse croire en toute bonne foi qu'il vient de l'inventer. L'appareil qu'il fait breveter en 1934, en collaboration avec Maurice Fernez, s'apparente aux autonomes sans détendeur et utilise le manodétendeur mis au point par Mandet en 1899. Ce système permet de régler le débit de sortie de l'air qui s'échappe en continu, ce qui limite la durée de plongée et oblige à de fréquents réglages en fonction de la profondeur. Ce système rappelle l'appareil de Lemaire d' Augerville. En juillet 1935 il créé le premier club de scaphandriers amateurs sur le modèle de celui fondé par Glenn Orr en 1933 en Californie.

list

In 1934 René Commeinhes perfected an apparatus for firemen adding an air pressurised bottle used by Le Prieur and the Rouquayrol's regulator. That apparatus was officially recognized in 1837. In 1943 his son Georges, after he adapted the apparatus to the sea world modifying its mask, made a diving to 53 m depth off Marseille. He was unfortunately killed during the Strasbourg battle in 1944.

list

1970 - 1997

In 1942, December Jacques-Yves Cousteau met Emile Gagnan who brought him the solution he found in the self diving. Gagnan was an engineer in the " Air Liquide " society and he had recovered near the Piel society a little regulator he used to run gas vehicles. the CG 43 the tri-bottles the CG 45

J-Y. Cousteau and Emile Gagnan

list