Wed Oct 26, 2016 6:34 pm
each year I exhibit some of my collection of vintage gear for our annual Avalon harbor cleanup dive..usually just over 500 divers attend what is now in its 35th year..I bring out some fun old gear for folks, especially newer divers so they can learn a little about what and who made it possible for them to be out there enjoying subsurface excursions.. the solid bronze hat weighs 70 lbs and is circa 1916 ...movie prop for the original silent film version of 20,000 Leagues under the sea...there's a super rare Capt Max W. Taylor mask 1948.. with its kidney bean shaped breather bags...I had to search long and hard to find out the info on it, at first thinking it might have been a naval sub bailout rescue mask ..similar to a Momson Lung...but it wasactually designed as a freediver extra breath mask...I've used it..and know why it never went into full scale production.. of course all the standard stuff like DESCO Jack Brownes, both rebreather and second stage regulator versions, Victor Berge rebreatrher and umbilical supplied versions, Scott Hydropak, one of Lloyd Bridges Voit B4's and one of Sea Net manufacturing's original prototype version sea-dive masks..with inner tube strap and hose clamp lens seal.. that mask is circa late 30's and one of the very first commercially manufactured dive masks in the world..everything prior to that was goggles..as in Guy Gilpatric's 1938 spearfishing bible "the Compleat Goggler"...and yes, the book title is spelled "Compleat"
The long regarded timeline for Sea net Manufacturing making masks was thought to be mid 40's..however I located two publications..one a 1944 boys life magazine, and the other a 1940 Abercrombie and Fitch sales catalog each with advertisements for seadive masks made by sea net manufacturing in Socal... I figure they started making masks as early as the late 30's and ran for a few years and suddenly a big war popped up..and things shut down until the mid 40's when most folks like Nick Icorn thought they started biz...
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