Classic Diving books

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I was wanting to know if there was some place where the old diving books are readily available. I would really love it if they were scanned into a .pdf for download, or purchase. I have talked to some real old salts that have been diving since Moby Dick was a minnow, and they said that when they started there wasn't many options to learn (before PADI, and before C-cards). They had a couple books , Navy dive tables, a watch, and gear. The training that was available took weeks compared to a few days now. I feel the depth of information to understand the physics has mostly been lost in todays environment of training.

I am the type of guy that wants to know the whys of something instead of just it happens by magic. I feel I was trained by a great instructor (in my limited experience) but it was PADI, so the requirements have been watered down a bit.

Thanks for any help you can give.

I have gotten a few books from Amazon. Though some are now out of print they still show up if you know the title. I can recommend a few that I actually use for classes and as reference for my own written musings.
US Navy Dive Manual. Do a google search and download for free.
NOAA Dive Manual.
Deco for Divers by Mark Powell
SCUBA Diving by Dennis Graver - this is the text I am using now for OW classes. Not agency specific even though it has the SEI tables in it. Best of all there IS NO ADVERTISING for take this course before you have even finished your OW class.
The Six Skills by Steve Lewis - a good read by a good friend, mentor, and instructor of mine
The New Science of Skin and Scuba Diving
Diving Physiology In Plain English

You could start with these. I also have a little item I wrote available on Amazon. Just got notice that it's now being read by someone in 22 countries. . Link is in my sig line.
One of my reviewers called it a new standard.

A lot of the newer books have a history section that talks about how "in the beginning...". There are a bunch of book threads too on recommendations.

Here's one:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/technical-diving-specialties/478931-recommended-books.html

Enjoy!

I learned diving by reading Jacques Cousteau's classic, The Silent World. It is not mentioned above. Read it three times in about 1959, then have a good swimming/snorkeling background, and throw in a book like the above-mentioned New Science of Skin and Scuba Diving, and you're there for learning about scuba diving. Add to that the following:

A.P. Balder, The Complete Manual of Skin Diving, The Macmillan Company, London, 1968.
Carrier, Rick and Barbara, dive, the complete book of skin diving, Wilfred Funk, Inc., New York, 1957.
Thorne, Jim, Occupation Adventure, The Adventurers Club, London, 1961.
Hass, Hans, We Come From the Sea, Adventure Under the Water and Science in the Sun, Jarrods Publishers (London) Limited, 1958.
Stark, Walter, The Blue Reef, A Report from Beneath the Sea, as told to Alan Anderson, Jr., Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1979. (The adventures and observations of WALTER STARK, marine biologist and authority on sharks, at Enewetak Atoll, a coral reef in the Pacific Ocean.
Bronson-Howard, George, Handbook for Skin Divers, An ARCO How-To Book, Arco Publishing Company, Inc., 480 Lexington Avenue, New York 17, N.Y., 1958.
Quilici, Folco, the blue continent, Rinehart & Company, Incorporated, New York & Toronto, 1954.

I have a lot more, but that's a good start for "classic" diving books.

SeaRat

I think this qualifies as a classic.

I don't think you will find more detailed information regarding physics in older books. They had about the same grasp on basic laws then as we do now.

What you will find in almost every older book is a larger section dealing with skin diving, more details about how a regulator works, a section on dangerous marine animals, a section about photography, and a section about spear fishing. Some, like Dive may contain a section on do it yourself equipment.

The first "dive" book was Diving with and without Armor by J.B. Green 1859. It detailed the adventures of a hardhat diver: https://archive.org/details/divingwithwitho00greegoog
The first US Navy Diving Manual was published in 1905. A modern PDF of the manual can be found here: http://www.usu.edu/scuba/navy_manual6.pdf
In 1928 William Beebe wrote Beneath Tropic Seas, which told of his exploits using a shallow water diving helmet. Read it here: https://archive.org/details/beneathtropicsea00beeb
The Compleat Goggler by Guy Gilpatric 1938 (reprinted in 1957) detailed the exploits of early skin divers.
The Silent World by Cousteau, Dumas, Dugan 1953 chronicles the introduction and early use of the aqualung.
A Manual for Free Divers Using Compressed Air, D.M. Owen, 1955 is an early US diving publication.
In 1957, The Science of Skin and SCUBA Diving was put together as a comprehensive guide. It was reprinted as The New Science... for many years (into the 1970's).
The 1960's and 70's saw an explosion of "how to" diving manuals. Almost all contain the same information.

If you want to get technical, and read about what was known in 1971 on diving physiology, pick up the following book:

Lambertsen, C.J., Editor, Underwater Physiology, PROCEEDINGS OF THE FOURTH SYMPOSIUM ON UNDERWATER PHYSIOLOGY, Academic Press, New York and London, 1971.

Also check out:

Dueker, Christopher W., M.D., Lieutenant Commander (Medical Corps) U.S. Navy, Medical Aspects of Sport Diving, A.S. Barnes and Company, South Brunswick and New York, 1970.

SeaRat

PS--Dale, the link you gave us goes to Rev 6 of the U.S. Navy Dive Manual, dated 2008, unfortunately. Do you have the original manual's link?

Bennett and Elliotts' Physiology and Medicine of Diving

Lostlugnut --Been there and done that

Perhaps I can be of a wee bit of assistance. Your comments are in bold


Classic Diving books

"I was wanting to know if there was some place where the old diving books are readily available."

It is suggested you goggle Peter Stone, Ocean entrprizes. He is the world's foremost diving book merchant. Huge selection of modern and vintage books at a reasonable prices. "

There are a very few dive related books that are considered key classics

The one that comes immediately to mind is the very rare increasingly valuable "Compleat Goggler" published in 1938 by the American Guy Gilpatric and reprinted in 1950s by the editor of Skin Diver Magazine, the late Chuck Blakeslee. ( I have the original , the British edition and the reprint)

For the underwater photographer it would be "Undersea with helmet and camera" published in 1940 by A. Felix DuPont.
(I have an inscribed copy of this book!)


For the helmet collector it would be the extremely valuable "Helmets of the deep" published in 1988 by Leon Lyons. (I have #500 inscribed copy of this book)

For bios of many of the pioneers of skin and SCUBA diving "Whos who of SCUBA diving" published only once in 1993. It is suggested that you obtain this book and examine it for your instructor's name and bio.

None of these books are available at what most would consider a reasonable price

"I would really love it if they were scanned into a .pdf for download, or purchase."

So would I and I would suspect the diving world would benefit but it would be a herculean task which would require considerable effort and expenditure of a great amount of funds.


"I have talked to some real old salts that have been diving since Moby Dick was a minnow, and they said that when they started there wasn't many options to learn (before PADI,
and before C-cards).

Since they are moss backs
They had a couple books , Navy dive tables, a watch, and gear. The training that was available took weeks compared to a few days now. I feel the depth of information to understand the physics has mostly been lost in todays environment of training."


Good Gosh!

Certification of diving civilian divers began in the 1940s (Scripps Institution of oceanography, Shor,1978, ISBN0-914488-17-1 & LCCC78-52598)

The civilan certification of divers began with the Los Angeles County Underwater Instructor program in July 1954 which was based on the Scripps program. It was and remains the program which all civilian dive programs are based. LA Co begat NAUI in 1960and NAUI begat PADI in 1970 and the rest of the instructor alphabet soup followed.

The first civilian dive manual was published in 1948 by Spaco (a dive company) which was followed in short order by Aqua lung/US. divers. All of which would be considered brochures in bibliophile terms

When LA Co was established Underwater recreation was immediately published in July 1954- (only one original copy remains) It has been updated every few years.

I would suggest you might want to re-evaluate your statement about your modern fuzzy faced late model tube sucking bubble blowing instructors. They are apparently suffering from instructor ignorance and instructor information incest

I am the type of guy that wants to know the whys of something instead of just it happens by magic. I feel I was trained by a great instructor (in my limited experience) but it was PADI, so the requirements have been watered down a bit.

A bit? You learned transporation to the bottom and hopefully back to the surface. Want to learn more? it will cost you more!
You are now involved in a huge step learning process; each step will require additional funds and time commitment

"Thanks for any help you can give."

I have been collecting books and American periodicals for over 60 years

What follows is from diving resume and is a description of my personal library which is recognized by the world's serious diving bibliophiles as the most complete private collection in the world. Perhaps it will provide some insight as to what is-or was available

PERSONAL LIBRARY
I have a complete bound set of "Skin Diver" magazine (1951 to it's demise) including almost every diving equipment catalog published and all Underwater Film Festival programs. This is the only set of its kind in existence any where in the world.

! also have a extensive collection of Skin diver magazine covers inscribed to me by Art Pender, (1954) Ron Merker (1955) Bev Morgan (1961) Jack Prodanovich (1953)Wally Potts (1957) and numerous others.

Movie stars Lloyd Bridges and Tony Francioso, Singer ,John Gary

Artist John Steel SDM covers have been inscribed to me (I also own several of his pictures)

I also have complete bound sets of “Dive”, “NDA News”, American Scuba Diver”, Aquarius”, "Water World", "Underwater", "Fathom", "Sport Diving”, "Underwater Photographer",” California Diver,” “ Pacific Diver”, “SCUBA PRO Diving and Snorkeling”, “Diving and Snorkeling Quarterly” “Ocean Realm”, California Diver 11, all of which are no longer published. Maintain and bind current sets of “Dive Training”, “Sport Diver”, Historical Diver” (USA),

Have the only known complete set of “Pacific and Atlantic Underwater News”, published from 1966 to 1971. It was the first newspaper devoted entirely to the underwater world. Appeared in numerous issues of this publication.

I also have what is considered the largest and most complete set of civilian dive training manuals beginning with the Spaco manual of 1949 to manuals published to about 1980.

I also have all the USN diving manuals beginning with the original 1905 "Manual for Divers" to the conversion to electronic format

I have published approximately two hundred articles on sport diving in the NAUI News, Los Angeles County Underwater News, Skin Diver, Dive, Discover Diving, Aqua Corps, Historical Diver, Arizona Diving News, Southwest Diver Magazines, Historical Diving Times (UK), Free Diving and Spear Fishing News (Australia).

From June 1999 to August 2002 I wrote a twice-monthly column “Dive Bubbles” for the five cities Times Press Recorder newspaper. It is reported that this column was the first and only regularly scheduled diving newspaper column in California and possibly the United States

I appeared on the cover of Skin Diver magazine,(August 1960) was selected, featured and honored as the first guest editor (February 1966) and have written numerous articles for the publication. Only person known to receive all three honors


Featured in Scuba Pro Diving and Snorkeling Fall, 1988 issue as a Celebrity Seafood Chef

I have collected and maintain an extensive 2000 plus volume diving library, the majority of which are rare out of print books. Many have been personally inscribed by the authors who were also friends and diving companions,in addition to being noted diving authorities; Dr. Bruce Halstead, Bill Royal, John Reseck Jr., Dr. James Dugan, Clint Degn, John D. Craig,Dick Schroeder, Dr. Glen Egstrom, Zale Parry, Ella Jean Morgan, Erin O'Neil, two(2) F.M. Roberts, two (2) Al Tillman, two (2) Eugenie Clark, two (2) by Bill Barada & Lloyd Bridges, two (2) Dr. Terry Mass, two (2) Francis "Doug" Fane, three (3) Ed and Marion Link, six (6) Sir Arthur C.Clarke, six (six) Dr. Hans Hass, five (7) Lotte Hass, seven (5) Clive Cussler and seven (7) by J.Y. Cousteau, plus many lessor known authors to numerous to list

I also maintain a number of extensive historic files.
The dive flag; it's history, development, subsequent litigation and finally world wide acceptance
The American retailer, Sears, Penny's and Wards early involvent in the diving industry
Guy Gilpatric, his books and his life and death.

I have a bound edition of James Dugan's 1948 "First of the menfish" which introduced J.Y. Cousteau and self contained diving to the US

In May 1996 I organized and hosted the very first US diving bibliophile meeting. It was attended by diving bibliophiles from the western US and via telephone from throughout the US and a number of letters from foreign bibliophiles.

Upon my demise the entire collection with be inherited by my son Dr. Sam IV, who is a NAUI (life) PADI instructor, Pro 5000 and an ER & Hyperbaric doctor. (Hyperbaric=Diving doctor)
sdm111

Should you need to know more about me suggest that you refer to "Passing" "Art Pender; King of sling" on this board or goggle may name and scuba diving

Read and acknowledge this post immediately for I plan on deleting it ASAP

Sam,

Instruction in the Southern California area may have started in the 1950s, but when I bought my Healthways SCUBA and a 38 cf tank in 1959, from picking strawberries and beans in the summer, there was no instruction in the Salem, Oregon area. I had to wait for a course from LA County Instructor Roy France to get my C-card in 1963, after my high school group had formed a junior dive club, and we worked with the senior dive club, the Salem Aqua Club, to get an instructor up to Salem. It depended a lot on where you lived to say when formal instruction occurred.

I really like all your references above. Thanks,

SeaRat