Basic gear from mid-twentieth-century France

[David Wilson]

Thanks, guys, for your feedback and contributions. They help immensely.

Returing to Watersports gear, I am going to review the remaining diving masks plus the firm's breathing tube and swimming fins. Let's begin with the masks.

The May 1961 Watersports ad above not only illustrates the "Dauphin" mask, which we have already reviewed, but also lists two further models: the "Aquarama" and the "Méduse". We'll start with the "Aquarama", unleashing a mystery as we do so. I have no images of a Watersport Aquarama to display and the only clue to its appearance I have is the French description "panoramique à bord droit", which renders roughly into English as "wide-view, straight-edged". The name "Aquarama" reinforces its selling point of a wide range of vision. But what are we to make of the introduction of the "Aquarama" mask by La Spirotechnique in 1965:

Here are images of a real "Spiro" Aquarama mask:

I've read somewhere that Jacques-Yves Cousteau himself once insisted on his team wearing this mask because this model highlighted a diver's eyes so well when filming. The fact that the Spiro and Watersports masks share the same name may be either a total coincidence or an indication that La Spirotechnique took over production of the mask after 1965 when Watersports may have ceased trading. I don't have a date for the demise of the company founded by Raymond Pulvénis. Can anybody shed any light on this mystery?

 

[David Wilson]

We move on now to the Watersports Méduse mask. Named after Medusa (above), a monster in ancient mythology with serpent locks, this model came with a built-in snorkel that may have had a passing resemblance to one of the snakes projecting from the original Medusa's head.

Watersports Méduse snorkel-mask

The image and text above come from a catalogue issued in 1962 by the Barakuda company of Hamburg, which carried Watersports gear as well as basic diving equipment of its own making. The German text reads: "M E D U S E (franz.). Luxusmodell einer Schnorchelmaske mit geringem Totraum und weichem anschmiegsamem Sitz. Der Schnorchel ist mit einem Ballventil ausgerüstet. Eines der schönsten französischen Schnorchel-masken-Modelle mit eigenwilliger Formgebung und ansprechendem Äußeren. Die Kinnpartie ist in den Maskeninnenraum einbezogen. Für sehr große Kopfformen nicht geeignet. Farbe elfenbein. Sicherheitsglasscheibe. Nr. 157. DM 19,85." For non-German-speakers, here is a rough translation: "MEDUSE (French). This luxury-model snorkel-mask minimises dead space and provides a soft, snug fit. The built-in breathing tube is equipped with a ball valve. One of the finest French snorkel-mask models, featuring a unique shape and an attractive exterior. The chin area is integrated into the mask interior. Unsuitable for very large head shapes. Ivory coloured. Safety glass lens. No. 157. DM 19.85."

Note the chinpiece at the base of the skirt, which identifies this snorkel-mask as a full-face model enclosng the mouth as well as the nose and eyes. The conventional wisdom is that all vintage snorkel-masks were full-face designs, but anyone conducting the most basic investigation will discover how erroneous this common belief is. I have a French-made Tahiti snorkel-mask in my collection and it definitely encloses the eyes and the nose only, leaving the mouth clear:

 

[David Wilson]

On to the Watersports snorkel proper. We'll begin with a little history. First some images I posted earlier in this thread:

Note here the breathing tube, which Pulvénis dubbed a "tuba" in French, the word still used for a snorkel in the Francophone diving community. This article was certainly around in 1940, two years after another French pioneering spearfisherman, Maxime Forjot, owner of the Douglas speargun company and father of the Marin brand proprietor, patented the first modern snorkel in 1938:

Note that the Forjot and Pulvnénis designs are front-mounted, the snorkel type of choice for today's competitive finswimmers.

And, finally, here is an image of a Watersports snorkel on display in the Musée Dumas:

Note the mouthpiece with the familiar flange and twin lugs. The exhibit, unfortunately, is undated, but I suspect it is a homemade prototype and not a commercial product. In 1943, the Pulvénis brothers, Raymond and Roger, obtained a Spanish patent entitled "EMBOCADURA HERMETICA PARA TUBOS RESPIRATORIOS DE CAZA SUBMARINA Y OTRAS APLICACIONES" (My translation: "Leak-tight mouthpiece for breathing tubes used in underwater hunting and other applications") for a different, better sealing and more "anatomical" style of snorkel mouthpiece:

The May 1961 Watersports ad doesn't mention a snorkel, so it's perfectly possible that the only Watersports "snorkel" to be mass-produced was the Méduse snorkel-mask.

 

[David Wilson]

And finally, and I mean "finally" this time for Watersports gear, we come to swimming fins. Just one model on offer, but there were at least two versions during the years when Watersports operated. We'll begin with the version in the May 1961 Watersports ad above.

Watersports Hydrodynamic fins

So what we have here is a pair of full-foot open-toe fins, which represented professional-standard gear for underwater hunting in the Mediterranean during the 1960s and 1970s. The blades are reinforced with three ribs. Other versions existed before May 1961:

The images above come from the December 1960/January 1961 edition of the French diving magazine L'Aventure Sous-Marine, which I don't have in my possession. The ad lists two versions of the Watersports "Dauphin" Hydrodynamic fin. The "Modèle Chausson" is a full-foot design, which is shown with closed toes, while the "Modèle Réglable" can be assumed to be an adjustable open-heel design.

That's it for today because I have a presentation to prepare on a subject totally unconnected with vintage French diving gear in particular or even diving in general. By the time I return here, my presentation will have been delivered to its audience and I will be free to move on to a review of another early French manufacturer's diving products. I am minded to choose Maxime Forjot's Douglas for my next company review because I've already mentioned him in this segment of the thread. A bientôt!

 

[David Wilson]

As promised, here we review the Douglas brand, which despite its Anglo-American name is firmly rooted in the French Riviera and in the city of Nice in particular. The man behind the brand was one Maxime Forjot:

He is seen above standing in front of a display of his spearfishing inventions and photographs at the "Exposition artisanale de Nice" exhibition in his home town in 1946. The text on the panel or banner at the top of the photograph sings the praises in peacetime of the popular wartime swimming activity of fish hunting, which he describes as an exciting sport, a source of enjoyment and a valuable food resource. In his hands, Forjot holds what is perhaps his best-known invention: a Douglas speargun:

I am indebted to the author of the blog at Les Palmes Douglas - Le Scaphandrier for the information and images so far. I shall be referencing this blog further when we take a closer look today at the diving mask, the breathing tube and the swimming fins designed by Maxime Forjot to support the activity he pioneered on France's Mediterranean coast: Chasse aux poissons à la nage, sea swimming to hunt fish, or simply spearfishing for short.

 

[David Wilson]

If you take a closer look at the large image in Maxime Forjot's display at the Nice exhibition in 1946, you can just make out a swimmer, speargun in hand and presumably immersed in the Mediterranean. On his face, the swimmer wears a diving mask with a frontal snorkel, nowadays the breathing tube of choice for competitive finswimmers, and a pair of fins on his feet. Not particularly remarkable for us in the twenty-first century, but quite revolutionary in the immediate aftermath of World War II and a truly historical moment when we consider the rôle Maxime Forjot played in the development of the basic diving equipment we now take so much for granted.

Let's start with the diving mask and the breathing tube. Here is the French patent drawing Forjot filed in December 1938, beating off strong competition from Charles Wilen and Alexandre Kramarenko to be the first in the field:

What you see here is the first modern patent for basic snorkelling gear. A "half mask" enclosing the nose as well as the eyes. With the nose inside the mask, those rubber bulbs are no longer needed to avert eye squeeze. And then there's the snorkel, a simple air-supply pipe extending to the surface with a 90° bend at the demand end for mouth insertion. No fancy valves, the modern flange and twin lug mouthpiece has not yet been invented and the last patent drawing would hardly be out of place nowadays as an illustration of a snorkeller's head complete with basic gear. But keep in mind these drawings date from December 1938, the year before the outbreak of World War II...

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Here's an excerpt from an article devoted to Maxime Forjot on Divernet:

Maxime Forjot soon realised that if the goggles were extended to include the nose, the diver would be able to compensate for the increasing pressure by blowing into the airspace. He determined to make what he called a face mask, initially for his own use on his daily excursions. He engaged a skilled worker called Megean to help him build a mould. "My aim was to have an exact relica of my head. This is often done when making deathmasks of people. This is exactly what was done on Napoleon. In my case the difference was that I was still alive. So I plucked up courage and asked Megean to cover my face with plaster to make the mould. It was extremely painful and dangerous, as we had to wait until the plaster dried. It sticks to your skin as it dries and makes your eyelids burn. You even risk blindness. To make sure that I could breathe during this operation, I stuck two pieces of macaroni up my nostrils. We were then able to make a bust mould onto which we poured rubber, producing a mask that fitted my face perfectly. We fitted a single window for both eyes and left the mouth free for a breathing tube, which I made next." He wanted the diver to be able to swim while looking down. This called for a tube connecting his mouth with the surface air. His tube was made of plastic and connected a mouthpiece at one end with a curved section that reached 15cm above the divers head. The tube was held in position in front of the mask by a metal clip attached to the mask rim. This design is still used today by competitive fin-swimmers, because of its superior hydrodynamic properties over a side-mounted snorkel. But it was not until December 1938 that the co-inventors, Forjot and Megean, were able to register their patent. The early prototypes were developed during spearfishing activities in local waters, and their attention soon turned to perfecting the speargun.

If you want to find out exactly what happened to Maxime Forjot and his invention of the diving mask and the breathing tube, click the following link and read on: The ripping-off of Maximes mask.

 

[David Wilson]

Let's take a closer look at Maxime Forjot's innovative diving mask and the breathing tube accompanying it. Both the prototype mask and its successor were trialled by Robert Devaux and described by him in his seminal 1940s underwater hunting book below:

"L'Œil Sous-Marin", the "Undersea Eye", was the name Forjot assigned to the first version of his mask, which delighted those who trialled it because of the wide field of vision it offered relative to existing goggles. There were teething problems nevertheless, not least because strapping the mask too tightly to the face restricted blood circulation while strapping it too loosely led to water leaking inside (Not a problem experienced with today's diving masks, eh?) Anyway, a more watertight version of the mask with the same benefits followed at the end of August 1939. It was extensively trialled, then marketed as "L'Œil Marin", the "Sea Eye", whose design was endlessly imitated by Forjot's rivals despite his 1938 patent.

And here is a picture from Devaux's book illustrating the 1945 edition of Forjot's "Œil Marin" combined with a later version of his breathing tube, now complete with a swan's-neck curve and a shut-off valve at the supply end:

This front-mounted snorkel mask configuration is reminiscent of the following British Typhoon "combined mask-tube" illustrated in the January 1956 issue of the British Sub-Aqua Club journal Neptune:

 

[David Wilson]

Last post for today focuses on Maxime Forjot's Douglas swimming fins.

Douglas open-heel fins

The first image is from the blog I referenced in my first posting today, while the other two are from the Dumas online diving museum. Note how the fins are asymetrical, cut obliquely at the tips. Eight ribs, including the side rails, reinforce the blades. The foot pockets come with extended foot plates to protect bare heels when walking from pebble beaches into the Mediterranean to begin spearfishing. The fins, like the mask, are fitted with twin buckles with adjustable straps for a secure fit against loss in choppy conditions. The original colour, apparently, was green, although time has taken its toll on the Douglas fins illustrated above.

That's your lot for today. I'll be back in a few days' time to review another early Nice-based spearfishing company: the United Service Agency. Yes, back in the mid twentieth-century, the USA represented everything that was new and exciting for battle-torn France, which is why many of the French diving equipment companies back then had American names.

 

[dmaziuk]

Note that the Forjot and Pulvnénis designs are front-mounted, the snorkel type of choice for today's competitive finswimmers.

Competitive swimmers in general: even at the "light training" speeds the water resistance pulls on a side-mounted snorkel way too much for it to be of any use. Michael Phelps has lent his name to the tube with triangular cross-section to cut through water better. Focus Swim Snorkel Black/Neon Yellow/Black - MP Michael Phelps - US

Comes with a choke similar to what freedivers use to pump up the breathing muscles: Focus Swim Snorkel Restrictor Cap | MP Michael Phelps - MP Michael Phelps - US

 

[David Wilson]

Thank you so much, dmaziuk, it just so happens that I'm doing some separate research on snorkels at the moment and I was unaware of these developments in breathing tubes for competitive swimmers. Thank you to everybody else reading and supporting this thread.

On now to United Service Agency sited in Nice on the French Riviera. There's not much information out there online about the company other than the names of its founders Alexandre Kramarenko and Charles H. Wilen, both keen spearfishermen and inventors. The former is perhaps better known than the latter, due to this White Russian expatriate being referenced in Guy Gilpatric's famous tome The Compleat Goggler, where his photograph appears:

Kramarenko is seen wearing the underwater hunting "monogoggles" he invented, which resembled swimming goggles, enabling underwater vision but excluding the nose.

Kramarenko and Wilen were pipped at the post by Maxime Forjot when it came to patenting the first diving mask and snorkel in France, but they did manage to patent the first side-mounted snorkel (complete with ball valve) in the USA:

Kramarenko's partner Wilen also patented a "swimmer's mask" with built-in snorkels:

A US design patent followed for a simpler version:

So much for the United Service Agency patents.