Hey Folks,

[cruzerlou]

I'm a newbie to diving and have most of the gear I need except for a wetsuit and a few other small things and I'm planning n starting classes to get certified in the next few weeks or so.
A good friend of mine works at a local dive shop and he tells me the owner is into vintage diving gear and is willing to barter DocVikingo over on the diver to diver forum said I should ask y'all about this .
I have this old AQUA-LUNG and two 50lbs steel tanks with Dracor back pate and I was wondering what y'all thought it might be worth to a collector.
From what info I've been able to find this is a very early one[ 1955/57] without the small hose inside the feed side and it has a Healthways mouth piece on it with just the two venturi valves in it.
The tanks have a Sportsways t valve on them.
It has a yellow tag riveted on to it ,reading
AQUA -LUNG
OVER PRESSURE BREATHING
COUSTEUEAU- GAGNAN PROCESS
U.S.PATTEN NO.2,485,059
OTHER PATTENS PENDING
U.S.DIVERS CORP.
11201WEST PINCO BLVD. ( THEN THE SERIAL NUMBER 38291)
LOS ANGELES 64 CA
USE COMPRESSED AIR ONLY.


Here's a few pics of it.





I bought it at a yard sale on the cheap . I thought it would make a cool wall hanger in my man cave, but if trading it off to offset he cost of a wetsuit and lessons , it' all gravy.
Please know that I'm only looking for advice here and not looking to sell this rig.
I'm very serious about learning to dive and if you look at my profile, you'll see I have most of the gear I need.
I'm looking forward to making new friends here and learning from y'all .

Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Lou

 

[cruzerlou]

I'm just curious, have I done something wrong here? Bouth here in this post and my introduction post no one has answered me .
I hope I have offended someone somehow.
Lou

 

[sealark]

That regulator is one of the first ones made. It might be a mistrial. If I had it I would keep it as a display. I am a retired navy diver and that style us divers regulators is what was used in 1965 when I went through dv school. They sell for around 150 bucks on e bay. Put the reg and tanks in your man cave and look up the history on them before selling them. Thanks for posting a piece of history that I came through.

 

[Bryan@Vintage Double Hose]

Here is the information on your regulator courtesy of Vintage Double Hose.com

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rv40h66zoul3z0g/Mistral Family Watermark.pdf?dl=0

Hoses may have been changed. Mouthpiece is not original but was very popular during the era for your regulator due to "challenges" with the original Overpressue Breathing design and were changed out to the Hope Page that is on it now. Regulator may have been updated to the Mistral style venturi but closer inspection would be needed to be sure.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

I have, and have been diving, a DX Overpressure Breathing regulatory for many years now. Mine has been completely rebuilt, and has SCBA hoses on it, but retains the original design with the hose-within-a-hose venturi concept. It was the best-breathing single stage regulator that U.S. Divers Company produced. The "gushing" of air some divers objected to would cause them to reject virtually every single hose regulator now on the market; they were used to the much harder-breathing original Aqualung regulator, and thought the easy breathing regulator would cause them to run out of air sooner. The one objection they mentioned did have merit; ice crystals shooting into their mouth due to the venturi and the design of the metal mouthpiece, but only if you dived under ice. Fred Roberts, in Basic Scuba, stated something to the effect that if the Mistral orifice was used, it would "approach" the breathing characteristics of the DX Overpressure Breathing regulator. The hoses you have appear to be the original ones for this regulator. The Hope-Page mouthpiece was, as indicated above, a replacement for the original metal mouthpiece. At that time, U.S. Divers Company had Hope-Page mouthpieces available to buy too (source, Dive, the Complete Book of Skin Diving, by Rick and Barbara Carrier, page 276).



SeaRat

 

[cruzerlou]

Thanks for the info guys.
This rig does not have the hose in a hose on the feed side . I don't know if this was a mod or if it is the original design.
All I really know about is that it's a first Gen U.S. Divers CORP. 1955/57) rig .
Like I said I thought it would just be a cool addition to my man cave ,but if the dive shop owner is interested in it ,I'll trade it off against the cost of my wetsuit a d lessons

 

[THRASH]

I know nothing about vintage dive equipment, but it sure looks neat. Like some others have mentioned, look into what you have and make sure it is worth parting with rather than keeping and preserving as a display. Thanks for sharing.