Vintage Double Hose

Hello everyone!
I got a very strange regulator. It is made ​​in Brazil. It looks like the VIKING / NORSEMAN regulator. I'll try to get the records in the Brazilian Patent Office. The label is written "ESCAFANDRO AUTÔNOMO" (SCAPHANDRE AUTONOME in french), the number of patent - 100411 and name DELTA.
I put new hoses...
I have never seen this regulator before! Asap I get more informations I post here.

Some pictures:

Wow!Interesting!

That is quite a contraption! Hopefully you come up with a manual or catalog with more information about it.

Very interesting Adairrj! Thanks for putting that up. If it were not for you we would never see these bits of history!

Wow. Looks like it was made very early on, judging from the "bathroom sink" tank valves and super heavy hose clamps. Pre-Cousteau Gagnon? 30s-early 40s? Possibly some kind of constant flow/over-pressure system? Flow rate adjuster to the rear? I can't wait to find out.

Adair,

You just might have a late 1930s Yves le Prieur constant flow regulator of some type.

Le Prieur's design was the first autonomous breathing device used by the first scuba diving clubs in history - Racleurs de fond founded by Glenn Orr in California in 1933, and Club des sous-l'eau founded by Le Prieur himself in Paris in 1935.[16] Fernez had previously invented the noseclip, a mouthpiece (equipped with a one-way valve for exhalation) and diving goggles, and Yves le Prieur just joined to those three Fernez elements a hand-controlled regulator and a compressed-air cylinder. Fernez's goggles didn't allow a dive deeper than ten metres due to "mask squeeze", so, in 1933, Le Prieur replaced all the Fernez equipment (goggles, noseclip and valve) by a full face mask, directly supplied with constant flow air from the cylinder. The flow on all his designs were adjusted by the diver.

Check up on this with the Brazilian patent office.

I see markings on the tanks... any clues there as to date? Hmm, surely there is something there, and Adair is just keeping us in suspense and guessing!
That looks really old for SCUBA stuff.

Interesting!
Where does the exhaust go?

I am thinking that if it IS a constant flow regulator, that the exhaust is controlled by the now "chewing gum" valve that used to be in the reg. It would have adjusted the "leakage" of air from the two middle(?) return ports and acted as a relief valve to slow down the "Delta V" or density/velocity of air as it escaped the reg. The control valve definitely looks like a set screw arrangement that could be adjusted for various flow. It would have been adjusted for DV on the surface for a specific interval of time and a specified depth. This was first accomplished through trial and error for the first few dives or so and at shallower depths of so and then the diver would get a "feel" for what setting was good for what time and depth. After all, it is basically a controlled free flow regulator. To answer your question, the out-flow would have come out around the adjustment lever end of the reg. most likely. That being said, the diver would have taken a breath and either breathed out back into the circuit of flow through the use of a one way valve in the mouth piece(very possible due to low pressures of such rigs),exhaled through his nose using an adjustable nose clip, thus turning his nose into a kind of a "Duckbill" if he was wearing goggles, or he had a venting mask of some type and exhaled through his nose normally. This is a mystery.

Then again, I could be wrong on all counts.

You might find a valve cage or two within the convolution of the hoses to get past the Cousteau Gagnan exhaust patent.

I guess Adair hasn't had much luck with the Brazilian patent office yet. I've scoured the web and so far I've found nothing that resembles this dingus. Hope some of the rest of you have better luck and resources. I still think it might be a constant flow type, or that a ceiling fan mated with a bathroom sink and had a weird kid.
Adair, does the mouth piece have and valve cages, or is it a simple "T" pipe? Give us some more pictures of the inside and other angles if possible.

Live From the Red Sea

Russ

Hi all,
I have got none information yet....still looking for in patent office...in Brazil, it is not easy to get details about old Patents!!
Asap I get some news I let you know!

Adair that is really something .hope to hear more news on it

Adair,

Sent some of the information on this post to the Flashback Scuba Museum in Washington state. Maybe they'll know something about this thing.

Obrigado

Any news on the origin of this regulator?