Dive Fin History

[John C. Ratliff]

I am going to reinforce what Dr. Sam Miller stated above, that the originator of the swim fin was Captain de Corlieu. My reference is none other than Dr. Hans Hass, in his book We Came From The Sea:

Such was also the case with the new diving method. This was not invented by scientists or by the technicians of the established diving 'industry' and they also did not arise from a special necessity. Modern skin-diving developed from fun and sport, it derived from a lust for adventure, from a delight in what is novel and from interest in the unknown.

The whole thing began with diving-goggles, such as had been long used by pear-fishers. In 1930 two Japanese, armed with such glasses, dived off Capri. About the same time Alexander Kramarenko in France took a pair of thes goggles and fitted them with small rubber bags te equalize the pressure. Probably others, of whom we know nothing, undertook other or similar experiments. They all experienced the marvel of seeing clear under water. They saw big, rather unsuspecting fish nearby. The idea of using spear or trident to waylay these fish came naturally enough.

The fathre of under-water hunting must be held to be the American author Guy Gilapatric. As far as I can recall, his imagination was fired by an American naval officer's account of how he had seen, during a voyage to the South Seas, Polynesians, holding a spear, dive into the sea. Gilpatric published in 1938 the first book to be devoted to the new sport. It was called The Complete Goggler. I look upon him as my master and he mentions one of my first adventures in his book.

The next contribution to the elaboration of the new method was made by Captain de Corlieu, a French naval officer, when he invented flippers for the feet. Soon the under-water hunters felt the need to perpetuate, for the benefit of others, what they themselves had seen and experienced. So we got under-water photography and under-water films. As a matter of fact, as early as the last century Wilhelm Bauer and Louis Boutain had managed to take under-water photographs, but of their achievement probably none of the young men engaged in the new sport knew anything. Each one, for himself, grappled with the technical difficulties in his own way. My first under-water camera dated from the autum of 1939 in my book Jagd unter Wasser ('Underwater Hunting') and my first colour photographs in 1942 in Fotojagd am Meeresgrund ('Hunting with the Camera on the Sea's Bottom').

Also inspired by the example of Guy Gilpatric, Jacques Yves Cousteau, Philippe Taillez and Frédéric Dumas formed a group at Toulon. They dived off the French coast and also off the island of Jerba in southern Tunisia. Perhaps it was because we in Vienna were so far off from the sea that we ventured, already before the late war, to plunge into the Caribbean.

However, what was still lacking was 'artificial gills'. In Toulon, as in Vienna, the talk was all about some appropriate breathing apparatus. Cousteau plumped for compressed air and devised, in collaboration with the technician Emile Gagnan, the 'aqualung' which is now used by divers all over the world. We on the other hand, as I have already mentioned, chose an oxgen apparatus, the first of which was turned out in 1942. As far as I know this was the earliest breathing apparatus (used by skin-divers) whose existence can be proved by published documents.

In much of the present-day diving literature the dangers presented by use of pure oxygen are much stressed. In opposition to this opinion I can say only this--we have experienced no trouble at all with such an apparatus (up to depths of ten fathoms) during more than two thousand under-water adventures. Similar resulats are also reported from Italy and South Africa. All the same, I recommend sporting divers to make use of compressed air appliances. They are reliable, easy to use and allow one to descend to considerably greater depths.

After the 1939-1945 war a whole industry developed to supply the needs of under-water sportsmen. Dozens of different masks, snorkels, fins and under-water guns came on the market. Diving-gear and under-water cameras advertised the new sport. Comic papers and cararet shows discovered the world under the sea. Diving clubs were founded. The first international hunting competitions were held...
Hass, Hans, We Come From The Sea, Doubleday and Company, 1959, pages 254-256)

 

[Akimbo]

I am going to reinforce what Dr. Sam Miller stated above, that the originator of the swim fin was Captain de Corlieu. My reference is none other than Dr. Hans Hass, in his book We Came From The Sea:

Again, is this the same Captaine Louis de Corlieu quoted by Matsen? I would "guess" it probably is so could have been after the patent was applied for but before it was in production? Do you have any idea if he licensed the fin patent or was involved in actual production and marketing?

I was re-reading Jacques Cousteau: The Sea King by Brad Matsen and come across this passage on page 24. He is discussing Philippe Tailliez around 1936, the fellow naval officer that introduced Cousteau to diving

Was this the same "Captaine Louis de Corlieu" referred to in the book? Could it be that it was after the patent was applied for but before any tooling could be made to produce them in molded rubber? I can't even guess how much tooling for a pair of fins would have cost then, but I bet it was an enormous sum to a naval officer during the depression.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Akimbo,

I don't have an answer. I have asked David Richie Wilson to enter this conversation. If anyone knows the answer, he does. Here's one of his threads in the Vintage Equipment forum here.

Basic gear from the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic

My own feeling is that the original fins may have developed almost simultaneously in different locations. I suspect that JYC may have exagerated the role of Phillip Tailliez in the development of fins.

I did look up the Corlieu patent:

US2099973A - Lifesaving and swimming propelling device - Google Patents

John

 

[David Wilson]

Thanks, John, for drawing my attention to this thread.

If you are looking for famous figures in the prehistory of modern fins, the two that come to mind are Leonardo da Vinci with his webbed hand fins:

and young Benjamin Franklin with his foot fins

There are plenty of lesser personalities in fin prehistory during the Victorian era, but let's cut to the chase and deal with French naval officer Louis Marie de Corlieu, who is regarded by most as the "inventor of swim fins":

Note that the right-hand picture above shows de Corlieu wearing hand fins as well as foot fins. The hand and foot fins were designed to be lifesaving gear to be deployed during rescue at sea. I've been working on a monograph on the French diving equipment company Godel, which was de Corlieu's successor and patent licensee. This is what I have written in the introduction:

"These company details begin with an acknowledgement of French naval officer Louis Marie de Corlieu, whose research on personal survival equipment at sea led to his development of the “propulseurs de natation et de sauvetage” (lifesaving and swimming propelling devices) he patented in April 1933. On 6 June 1933, French Admiralty observers stood by while de Corlieu demonstrated his invention. He swam eight kilometres during the six hours he spent in the 12 °C waters of Saint-Jean-de-Luz bay in southwestern France. Despite this feat, the French Navy rejected de Corlieu’s invention. However, while visiting Tahiti In 1937, American Olympic yachtsman Owen Churchill, saw de Corlieu’s “propulseurs” in action and was so impressed that he eventually traced the inventor to Algeria and obtained the rights to manufacture the devices within the USA. He later patented his own improved design for the devices, which he now called “swim fins”, and the rest is history.

Établissements Edouard Godel maintained a factory at 16 rue du Champ-Renié in St-Maur-des-Fossés in the southeastern suburbs of Paris. According to the Département du Val-de-Marne archives, a “Manufacture séquanaise de Caoutchouc” was established there in 1946 to fabricate rubber goods. The premises complete with exclusive manufacturing rights had passed from Commandant de Corlieu, whose workshop used to occupy the site. By the end of the 1950s, the factory’s diving products were not only being sold through sporting goods stores everywhere but also being procured by armed services at home and abroad. The French Navy’s “Groupe d’Études et de Recherches Sous-marines” (GERS) underwater unit was supplied with military-grade fins named “Propuls” in homage to the original “propulseurs” invented and demonstrated by Commandant de Corlieu but rejected by the country’s maritime authorities."

I found useful information about Louis de Corlieu from the following sources:

1. Cayman Islands Department of Tourism (n.d.) International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame: LOUIS DE CORLIEU, Louis de Corlieu | International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame.
2. École Navale (2010) Louis Marie de CORLIEU (1888 - 1967), Ecole Navale / Espace tradition / Officiers célèbres

I will add further information later. In the meantime, there's an illustrated potted history of swim fins at Swimming Propellers: History of the Swim Fin, which is worth a look.

 

[Sam Miller III]

Almost 25 years ago I published a three part article in the Historical Diver on the history of fins. This pure research was accomplished the old fashioned way - Libraries - books, magazines and personal contact way before the internet google, or any other search engines were available. It was a labor of love that was spread over a period of about 20 years - A very difficult and time and labor intensive effort

If interested the first article covering the discovery of fins is as follows
~~~ http://aquaticcommons.org/14990/1/Historical_Diver_3_1994.pdf ~~~

<<<FYI I knew Owen Churchill - met him numerous times and have been a guest at his home in Brentwood (LA)>>>

RE; Swimming Propellers: History of the Swim Fin, I was very active in the SoCal, specifically Orange County (The OJ).diving and surfing communities during the period of the article -- I never met or heard of any of the principles in the article. Perhaps we were just in different aquatic social circles

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@SeaRat

John
I have a rather decent copy of Dr. Hass's 1942 book- at my side as I type- in a protective cover
Fotojagd am Meeresgrund ('Hunting with the Camera on the Sea's Bottom- I question what that book is now worth ??
I also have The Compleat Goggler- signed by Dr. Hass were he appeared in the book as the "blonde haired Austrian with a thick German accent"

<<< I have about 3 + lineal feet of German dive books- cant read or write German but it is my heritage--so I collected them many many moons ago before the disappeared >>>

History is a building process which begins with a solid base then maliciously build from there - one block-- one step at a time
We are at this late date building an insight into the history and development of the Diving Fin

Sam Miller, 111

 

[David Wilson]

The first article in Sam's trilogy of Historical Diver articles on the history of fins is certainly a "must-read" for anybody interested in the early modern development of fins, not least because he has had personal contact with the American protagonist of the fin saga, Owen Churchill, and is in a great position to provide fascinating and unique insights about his role.

I'm not going to comment on fin development on the American side of the "Pond" but instead limit myself to a few European observations. In my first message here, I referred to Leonardo da Vinci and Ben Franklin and I'd just like to add Giovanni Alfonso Borelli to that list. Like Leonardo, he was an Italian "renaisssance man" who dabbled in many areas of human scholarship and endeavour, including diving. In 1679 he drew the image below, which often appears in books where fin history is discussed:

Note the claw-like foot fins!

Returning to Commandant Louis Marie de Corlieu, the latter appears to have made the fins he designed available to others during the late 1930s, although I haven't been able to ascertain whether he ever made a living by selling them. Here's a brief article from the December 1939 edition of "Popular Mechanics":

The photo appears to show Owen Churchill wearing a pair of rubber fins. Note that these fins are assymetrical (different right and left feet)

And here's a picture I managed to find online of people wearing what appear to be de Corlieu's "propulseurs" on the French Riviera in the late 1930s:

In this instance, the woman's fins are symmetrical, while the man's are asymmetrical.

Sam's article tells us all we need to know about Owen Churchill's fins States-side during World War II as well as their journey to the UK to equip British "frogmen". The Axis powers, of course, had combat swimmers too and one prototype Italian fin was made by Superga back then, now better known as a manufacturer of sneakers:

This version was later replaced with the following version:

I've read somewhere that the Superga design may have been based on the Louis de Corlieu "propulseurs". Note too how the earlier version is symmetrical, the later one asymmetrical.

I'll leave it there at the moment. If anybody's interested in what happened in the late 1940s fin-wise within Europe, I'll be happy to pass on what I've discovered.

 

[Akimbo]

@David Wilson and @Sam Miller III

Thank you both, that explains a lot and shows how complicated real life is compared to simple summaries that pass as history. Judging from Sam's article, it looks like De Corlieu's fin had some sort of stiffeners (ref patent drawing and paragraph below).

Quoting Sam's article, Page 25 (bold is mine):

After considerable searching, Commander Louis De Corlieu was located in Algiers , Morocco still serving in the French Naval Air Force. A contractual arrangement was executed granting Owen Churchill exclusive rights to manufacture and sell fins under Commander DeCorlieu' s United States patent. Concurrently, Mr. Churchill received a design patent and an improvement patent for his swim fins in the United States. One of the most important claims in the patent were the ribs that taper to the end of the fin, providing strength and aiding propulsion. His fins were the first to be made entirely of rubber.​

This leaves zero doubt that it is the same de Corlieu and the fin he described to Philippe Tailliez was "probably" based on his experiments and prototypes he made for the French Navy survival R&D.

 

[David Wilson]

Judging from Sam's article, it looks like De Corlieu's fin had some sort of stiffeners (ref patent drawing and paragraph below).

His original 1933 design and patent certainly did (UK patent 424,353), but he made further improvements that were later UK-patented:

Note how the fin in Louis de Corlieu's UK patent 613,609 has an asymmetrical blade and the metal stiffeners no longer appear to be present. Here is a picture of the post-war Godel "Propuls" fin made under de Corlieu's new patent:

Quoting Sam's article, Page 25 (bold is mine):

After considerable searching, Commander Louis De Corlieu was located in Algiers , Morocco still serving in the French Naval Air Force. A contractual arrangement was executed granting Owen Churchill exclusive rights to manufacture and sell fins under Commander DeCorlieu' s United States patent. Concurrently, Mr. Churchill received a design patent and an improvement patent for his swim fins in the United States. One of the most important claims in the patent were the ribs that taper to the end of the fin, providing strength and aiding propulsion. His fins were the first to be made entirely of rubber.​

This leaves zero doubt that it is the same de Corlieu and the fin he described to Philippe Tailliez was "probably" based on his experiments and prototypes he made for the French Navy survival R&D.

Agreed!

 

[Sam Miller III]

Owen gave me a picture of De Corlieu and Owen photographed after WW 11 in Morocco . According to Owen it was the only picture of the two together I still have it filed or packed away "Some where?" I suspect I will find it some day or son Sam IV will find it after my DOC aka day of croaking

FYI Owen Churchill was from a wealthy family who had considerable agriculture property some where in the central valley. He was an avid sailor so he spent much of his time in SoCal sailing the channel islands and overseeing the manufacture of his fins.

He also never missed a diving event especially the many spearfishing contest which were unique to SoCal, I "think" It was after the 1951 meet that Own donated a perpetual trophy for the winners. Over the passing of so many years it has been misplaced.

He was 'One of a kind"

Sam Miller, 111

 

[Akimbo]

I'll leave it there at the moment. If anybody's interested in what happened in the late 1940s fin-wise within Europe, I'll be happy to pass on what I've discovered.

Count me interested.

I wonder what fins the the German combat swimmers of World War II used? I stumbled across this site on Italian Combat Swimmers, who were quite effective. My "guess" would be that they used the de Corlieu fin but Pirelli (who made oxygen rebreathers) "may" have copied them or even the Churchill.

This Wikipedia site indicates that Dunlap made fins for the British combat swimmers during the war but started with the Churchill fins. I wonder what motivated them to make the tooling instead of just getting the Churchills from the US?