LP Hose Evolution?

[Akimbo]

Another discussion got me thinking about this. Where did standards for LP hoses used on single-hose regulators come from? I am guessing that everybody started copying one company.

Was today’s standard copied from the SCBA (firefighting and mine safety) single hose regulators? Is this Imperial thread-centric standard for hoses used in Europe? I have seen “non-standard” hoses in old Scandinavian regulators but I don’t recall any others since the early 1970s.

It looks like the first US Divers single-hose was in the 1957 catalog. Was that the first and everyone copied it? What about single hose regulators in Europe?

Edit: This link is interesting: http://www.vintagescubasupply.com/regsingle.html

 

[DaleC]

Ted Eldred created the Porpoise single hose reg in Australia in the early 50's.

Now the shady part:

Air Liquide owned the Aqualung double hose patent, and created Le Spirotechnique to market them.
US Divers was the NA branch of Le Spirotechnique.
Le Spirotechnique wanted to market a single hose reg but Ted Eldred had already created one.
Air Liquide/Le Spirotechnique bought Ted's copyright and suppressed the Porpoise design in the NA market.
The first Le Spirotechnique/USD single hose was the Aquamatic, released in the late 50's.

 

[Akimbo]

Ted Eldred created the Porpoise single hose reg in Australia in the early 50's….

True, but the images on the Net I have found don’t look like the hose fittings are anything like what we see today.

I have seen some images of the US Divers Aqua-Matic single hose regulator. Some “look” like they might use hoses similar to today’s and others don’t. Could it be that the original Spiro Aqua-Matics used a different hose setup and later units made for the US market used what looks like our standard?

It looks like the Aqua-Matic was years ahead of everyone else’s single hose in the US. The cross-section of the Aqua-Matic in the 1958 US Divers catalog doesn’t look anything like hoses used today though.

 

[ams511]

I am guessing that everybody started copying one company.

In the early days of scuba the biggest account would be the US Navy. So I am guessing it came from Navy standards or a RFP.

 

[jacked_72]

Inflator hoses have have a bit of an evolution too. Like from going from male couplings to female. And of course, a few of them are not standard even today.

 

[Akimbo]

In the early days of scuba the biggest account would be the US Navy. So I am guessing it came from Navy standards or a RFP.

Not for single hose regulators. The US Navy purchased exclusively double hoses long after the single hose "standard" was settled on. Divers on the Trieste II had to get special permission to from Washington to use single hose regulators in the early 1970s because the Av-Gas ate the corrugated hoses in days.

 

[herman]

The Aquamatic (and it's Voit twin the VR-3) used a completely different type of fitting than we use today. I think it is a standard industrial gas fitting of some kind but in any case it was/is a metal to metal fitting with no Orings or gaskets. The male part is a rounded metal bulb that mates with a female socket. If you are familure with the hookah port on a DA/RAM it is the same fitting. I am unaware of any other reg using this connection so it was fairly quickly abandoned, most likely because the common connection we use today is much easier to machine and will take more abuse.

 

[captain]

As Herman said it was probably the standard fitting used for oxygen welding hoses, usually a size B but there are larger and smaller sizes.

 

[Akimbo]

The Aquamatic (and it's Voit twin the VR-3) used a completely different type of fitting than we use today. I think it is a standard industrial gas fitting of some kind but in any case it was/is a metal to metal fitting with no Orings or gaskets...

It sounds like you are describing what we know as the “standard O2 fitting” in the commercial diving industry. Many companies have used it as their standard for the gas supply umbilical at both ends.

I would think that this fitting isn’t used today on Scuba regulators is because it doesn’t swivel under pressure.



It “looks” like the fitting on the US Divers Calypso might have been similar to what we use today, except for a bend in the hose fitting. It looks very different from the Aqua-Div in the 1961 catalog.

What kind of hoses did the early Sportsways and Healthways single hoses use?

 

[herman]

The original Calypso is def the same hose style as we use today, I have one. Other than the Aquamatic and the VR-3 I have not seen anyone else use a hose differnet than the standard we use today, with the exception of the 1/2 ones that were used for a while.