Hose and mouthpiece color of classic vintage regulators?

[Nemrod]

I don't mean for this to be the typical whinning thread about hoses but feel free to whine and I may join in. Frankly, recent times have been both good and bad for my hose/mouthpiece collection. My question is-----what regulators had what color hoses and mouthpieces.

Mistrals seem to have yellow hoses with yellow mouthpiecesthrough 59. In 1960 they had yellow with black mouthpiece.

DAs seem to have had yellow with a black mouthpiece and in 1961 the superstretch hose in black.

OK, what regulators had blue hoses, green hoses, white hoses, gray hoses etc and with what color mouthpieces?

Nemrod

[capn_tucker]

I don't mean for this to be the typical whinning thread about hoses but feel free to whine and I may join in. Frankly, recent times have been both good and bad for my hose/mouthpiece collection. My question is-----what regulators had what color hoses and mouthpieces.

Mistrals seem to have yellow hoses with yellow mouthpiecesthrough 59. In 1960 they had yellow with black mouthpiece.

DAs seem to have had yellow with a black mouthpiece and in 1961 the superstretch hose in black.

OK, what regulators had blue hoses, green hoses, white hoses, gray hoses etc and with what color mouthpieces?
Nemrod

I can answer some of that. I know there was an early USD with blue hoses, but not sure which. Early Healthways Scuba had blue hoses and white Hope-Page mouthpiece. Voit VR-1 and VR-2 had green hoses & mouthpiece. All other Voits from 50 Fathom thru Voit Navy had gray hoses & mouthpiece. Never heard of white hoses..

[JES]

The 1958 DA had yellow hoses and a yellow mouthpeice as well.

[Scuba Cowboy]

To be historically accurate, I have original copies of the '58 & '59 USD catalogs. In '58, the catalog is printed in black, white & blue but definately shows the DA in black hoses & mouthpiece. The Mistral is shown looking lighter, but no mention of color. In '59 it appears yellow makes its debut, as its mentioned by JC on the first page as the new safety color. Both DA & Mistral are distinctly shown to have yellow hoses & mouthpieces.

[Nemrod]

There probably never whee white hoses, maybe it was the Hope Page mouthpiece I remember seeing that was white.

I wonder sometimes how accurately the catalogs, especially USD, represented what was actually supplied. We kniow the DA at least was supplied at various times with yellow/yellow, yellow/black, black/black.

So, which USD model had the blue hoses and what color was the mouthpiece or was that the model that had the one piece hose and mouthpiece assembly?

Voit, ok, gray and gray but weren't some Voits supplied with gray/black?

Nemrod

[Bryan]

So, which USD model had the blue hoses and what color was the mouthpiece or was that the model that had the one piece hose and mouthpiece assembly?

Nemrod

I remember reading in one of Phil's HDS articles that the blue mouthpiece/hose one piece assembly was developed for the blue label Broxton and was not around after that.....Don't quote me cause I don't have it right in front of me.

[capn_tucker]

Voit, ok, gray and gray but weren't some Voits supplied with gray/black?

Nemrod

I can't say for sure, but none of the Voit catalogs show gray/black. But obviously mix & match was done, as I have seen photos of Voit regs with gray hoses & black mouthpiece, and black hoses w/gray mouthpiece.
I imagine this became more and more common after 1966, when the only Voit double hose you could get was the Trieste, with it's all black hoses/mouthpiece.
The gray hoses/mouthpieces must have begun to fade away as spare parts stocks began to dry up?

[standingup]

What surprised me was a voit curved black mouthpiece

[capn_tucker]

What surprised me was a voit curved black mouthpiece

Yeah, at the very end of the era Voit abandoned their trademark "hourglass" mouthpieces, and went with the USD style curved one.
Although this was seen only on the Trieste II...

[JES]

To be historically accurate, I have original copies of the '58 & '59 USD catalogs. In '58, the catalog is printed in black, white & blue but definately shows the DA in black hoses & mouthpiece. The Mistral is shown looking lighter, but no mention of color. In '59 it appears yellow makes its debut, as its mentioned by JC on the first page as the new safety color. Both DA & Mistral are distinctly shown to have yellow hoses & mouthpieces.

Dan Barringer states on his Vintage Scuba Supply museum page that:

"The DA AquaMaster was introduced in 1958 and featured yellow hoses and a yellow mouthpiece. In 1959, the DA AquaMaster was sold with a black mouthpiece instead of yellow, but retained the yellow hoses."

I actually own one of these early un-serialized DA AquaMaster regulators with original yellow hoses and a yellow mouthpiece. It wouldn't be the first time a catalog was wrong since so many things can and did take place after publication.

Maybe someone has the definitive answer.

[Greg Barlow]

The reason why the Voit Trieste's mouthpiece looks so much like the US Divers version is that Voit actually produced the curved MP for US Divers. Part of the agreement in allowing Voit to sell USD designed regs such as the VR-1, VR-2, and Polaris 50, was that Voit would produce rubber items in return.

Greg Barlow

[capn_tucker]

The reason why the Voit Trieste's mouthpiece looks so much like the US Divers version is that Voit actually produced the curved MP for US Divers. Part of the agreement in allowing Voit to sell USD designed regs such as the VR-1, VR-2, and Polaris 50, was that Voit would produce rubber items in return.

Greg Barlow

I wonder why Voit waited until long after their production of USD designed regs ended to produce a curved mouthpiece instead of their trademark hourglass one.. Maybe they were trying to make the Trieste II look different from the original model?

[BSea]

I actually own one of these early un-serialized DA AquaMaster regulators with original yellow hoses and a yellow mouthpiece. It wouldn't be the first time a catalog was wrong since so many things can and did take place after publication.

Maybe someone has the definitive answer.

I bought an un-serialized DA from E-bay with what was said to be the original yellow mouthpiece, and black replacement hoses. I can't remember all the details, but I believe the person stated that the hoses were replacements, but the mouthpiece was original. He said the hoses were replaced several years later. I know, I know on e-bay, if their fingers are moving they're lying. But if it was true, then there is a case of a 58/59 DA with a yellow mouthpiece.

As far as the Blue 1 piece hose & mouthpiece, I have also seen 1 of those on ebay, but I don't remember who bought it. That was the only blue set for USD that I recall.

[YankDownUnder]

Additional Hose Colors:

Prototype Gagnan designed regulators used WWI gas mask hoses, which were canvas coated tan, or so I read. The two Australian made double hose regulators, the 'Juke Box' lung and the Lawson Lung had the same gas mask type hoses as these. I have original photographs of both. The canvas coated hoses also appeared on my Russian rebreathers and some Russian double hose regulators.

Black two piece hoses with chromed mouth pieces appeared on the British Submarine Products Sea Lion and Sea Lion II. The Super Sea Lion, Atlantis and Black Prince used a black rubber mouth piece and black hoses. They contracted for Cavalero in France to, and only the label changed.

Bright green hoses first appeared on the British made Heinke 'horn', the first regulator to circumvent the Cousteau-Gagnan patent by changing the exhaust method. Heinke was the competition for the Siebe Gorman licensed Mistral in the Commonwealth. Both the later Heinke MkIII, MkIV, MkVI or 'Merlin' had seamless black hoses and Siebe Gorman models had seamless black hoses as well. I have seen these and have several, so I know they are correct. Blue two piece hoses appeared on the early Nemrod regulators, but a dark grey and later black were also used. I have a new Nemrod Snark III so that is correct also. I also have a late Dacor in new condition and it has black seamless hoses.

I believe blue one piece hoses first appeared on the rather late model green label US Divers Aqua Lung. I have a new/undived green label regulator with serial number 9599, which makes it an early 1953 model. It has blue hoses. The green label models had a chromed mouth piece when first released, or so I read. It was the first Aqua Lung model to actually be made 100% in the USA and not of Canadian or French imported parts. The hoses have 'Made in USA' on them too.

The blue labeled Aqua Lung followed and it too had the blue one piece hoses. However, my blue label model is a late one and it has black two piece seamed hoses. That may have been the change over point or mine are replaced. The regulator appears 'like new' so they should be original. There is no way to be sure. The two piece had valves and the one piece did not, and that was a safety issue. I would guess that blue one piece was intended for the change over from green label to blue label, as they matched. However, yellow hoses appeared on yellow labeled Mistrals and blue labeled Aqua Masters, so there is no consistancy there.

There appears to be no firm pattern of one model 'only' having one hose type or color. It appears that existing stocks of hoses were used up, with overlaps appearing.

I am afraid that exhausts my knowledge on the matter.