Hmmm....
I have never seen a German reference to the use of this piece of equipment, mate...here's a little something that I have on record from the US Navy Dive Manual:
"1-3. 1.2 LePrieur's Open-Circuit Scuba Design. The thread of open-circuit development was picked up in 1933. Commander LePrieur, a French naval officer, constructed an open-circuit scuba using a tank of compressed air. However, LePrieur did not include a demand regulator in his design and, the diver's main effort was diverted to the constant manual control of his air supply. The lack of a demand regulator, coupled with extremely short endurance, severely limited the practical use of LePrieur's apparatus.
1-3. 1.3 Cousteau and Gagnan's Aqua-Lung. At the same time that actual combat operations were being carried out with closed-circuit apparatus, two Frenchmen achieved a significant breakthrough in open-circuit scuba design. Working in a small Mediterranean village, under the difficult and restrictive conditions of German-occupied France, Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Emile Gagnan combined an improved demand regulator with high-pressure air tanks to create the first truly efficient and safe open-circuit scuba, known as the Aqua-Lung. Cousteau and his companions brought the Aqua-Lung to a high state of development as they explored and photographed wrecks, developing new diving techniques and testing their equipment.
The Aqua-Lung was the culmination of hundreds of years of progress, blending the work of Rouquayol, LePrieur, and Fleuss, a pioneer in closed-circuit scuba development. Cousteau used his gear successfully to 180 fsw without significant difficulty and with the end of the war the Aqua-Lung quickly became a commercial success. Today the Aqua-Lung is the most widely used diving equipment, opening the underwater world to anyone with suitable training and the fundamental physical abilities.
1-3. 1.4 Impact of Scuba on Diving. The underwater freedom brought about by the development of scuba led to a rapid growth of interest in diving. Sport diving has become very popular, but science and commerce have also benefited. Biologists, geologists and archaeologists have all gone underwater, seeking new clues to the origins and behavior of the earth, man and civilization as a whole. An entire industry has grown around commercial diving, with the major portion of activity in offshore petroleum production.
After World War II, the art and science of diving progressed rapidly, with emphasis placed on improving existing diving techniques, creating new methods, and developing the equipment required to serve these methods. A complete generation of new and sophisticated equipment took form, with substantial improvements being made in both open and closed-circuit apparatus. However, the most significant aspect of this technological expansion has been the closely linked development of saturation diving techniques and deep diving systems." Not quite sure, though...that website looks very extensive and well educated (thanks for another great link John!
)...can anybody else help us out here???
~Gunny
