Aqua-lung
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2008-06-12T22:03:58Z
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{{otheruses|Aqualung}}
'''Aqualung''' was the original name for the first open-circuit [[Scuba sets|scuba diving equipment]], developed by [[Emile Gagnan]] and [[Jacques-Yves Cousteau|Jacques Cousteau]] in 1943<ref>"Year by Year 1943" -- [[History Channel International]]</ref>. 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.
==Trademark issues==
''Aqualung'' and ''Aqua Lung'' are registered [[trademark]]s for SCUBA-diving breathing equipment. That trade name is owned in the United States by the firm [http://www.aqualung.com/ Aqua-Lung], which was formerly known as [[US Divers]].
The French firm [[Air Liquide]] held the patent on the original "Aqualung" until the [[patent law#Term of patent|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]]'' (1953). Public interest in scuba diving began around 1953, in response to a [http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ National Geographical Society] Magazine article in English-speaking counties, and in France a movie, and perhaps ''The Silent World''. Like with some other registered [[trademark]]s, the term "aqualung" became a [[genericized trademark]] in English-speaking countries. 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 tradename and the patent.
In the USA the term ''Aqualung'' was popularized by the popular television series ''[[Sea Hunt]]'', 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]]. The word "aqualung" was commonly used in speech and in publications 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 got into the [[Russian language]] as the generic noun акваланг ("akvalang"). In the [[USA]], [[U.S.Divers]] managed to keep "Aqualung" as a trademark, and the acronym "SCUBA" ("Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", originating in the [[US Navy]] where it meant [[frogmen]]'s [[rebreather]]s) became the generic term for that type of open-circuit breathing set, and soon the acronym SCUBA became a noun "[[Scuba set|scuba]]". ("Scuba" was a trademark for a time, used by one of US Divers' competitors, [[Healthways]], which is now known as '''Scubapro'''). 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.
==Open/Closed Circuit==
The original "Aqua-Lung" was an "open-circuit" design, so called because gas flows from the tank, 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 tank, 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.
=="Tadpoles"==<!-- This section is linked from [[Timeline of underwater technology]] -->
In the early years of scuba diving in [[United Kingdom|Britain]], "tadpole" as a nickname for a type of diving gear 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 freeswimming. A 1950's Royal Navy diving manual also said that the aqualung was (only) for bottom-walking diving. In this time Siebe Gorman had no idea of sport diving, or was against sport diving, but expected aqualungs to be used for light [[commercial diving]]. Later, as is well known, most commercial and naval divers were free-swimming scuba divers; bottom-walkers became a tiny minority.
== See also ==
*[[Timeline of underwater technology#The diving regulator reappears]] for details of this development.
*[[Scuba sets]] for description of modern breathing sets.
==References==
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{{Refimprove|date=January 2008}}
== External links ==
*[http://www.aqualung.com/ Aqua Lung manufacturers site] (English, French, German, Italian, Czech, and Japanese language versions available)
*[http://www.scuba-diving-gear-equipment.com/archives/57-The-Aqua-Lung.html Aqua Lung] (Also known as Mistral Regulator)
*http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3899236907367885306&hl=en : Two Jacques Cousteau Aqua Lungs are shown in this 1950's video recorded on the island of [[Maui]].
[[Category:Underwater diving]]
[[Category:Diving equipment]]
[[Category:Diving engineering]]
[[Category:Genericized trademarks]]
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[[pl:Akwalung]]
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