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Aqua-Lung〔After Cousteau himself, who had coined the word, the spelling was originally ''Aqua-Lung''. See Jacques-Yves Cousteau & Frédéric Dumas, ''Le Monde du silence'', Éditions de Paris, Paris, 1953, Dépôt légal 1er Trimestre 1954 - Édition N° 228 – Impression N° 741 (in French)〕 was the original English name of the first open-circuit, self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (or "SCUBA") to reach worldwide popularity and commercial success. This class of equipment is now commonly referred to as a diving regulator〔Both regulators—the one from 1860 invented by Benoît Rouquayrol and the twin-hose Cousteau-type invented in 1943 by Gagnan and Cousteau—received, among some others, the name of ''régulateur'' (French for "regulator"). For the 1860 ''régulateur'' (see the page of the Rouquayrol-Denayrouze apparatus in the ''Musée du Scaphandre'' website (a diving museum in Espalion, south of France) ). For the word ''régulateur'' as used by Cousteau himself just check page 8 in the first French edition of Cousteau's book ''The Silent World'': Jacques-Yves Cousteau & Frédéric Dumas, ''Le Monde du silence'', Éditions de Paris, Paris, 1953, Dépôt légal 1er Trimestre 1954 – Édition N° 228 – Impression N° 741 (in French).〕 or demand valve. The Aqua-Lung was invented in Paris during the winter of 1942–1943 by two Frenchmen; the engineer Émile Gagnan and Naval Lieutenant ("lieutenant de vaisseau") Jacques Cousteau. == Invention and patent == An earlier underwater breathing regulator, known as the ''régulateur,'' was invented in France in 1860 by Benoît Rouquayrol. He first conceived it as a device to help assist in escaping from flooded mines. The Rouquayrol regulator was adapted to diving in 1864, when Rouquayrol met the ''lieutenant de vaisseau'' Auguste Denayrouze. The Rouquayrol-Denayrouze apparatus went into mass production and commercialization on 28 August 1865, when the French Navy Minister ordered the first apparatuses.〔(''Avec ou sans bulles ?'' (''With or without bubbles?''), an article (in French) by Eric Bahuet, published in the specialized website ''plongeesout.com''. )〕 After 1884, several companies and entrepreneurs bought or inherited the patent and produced it until 1965. In 1942, during the German occupation of France, the patent was held by the Bernard Piel Company (''Établissements Bernard Piel'').〔(List of French companies which produced the Rouquayrol and Denayroze patents (''Association les pieds lourds'' website, in French). )〕 One of their apparatuses went to Émile Gagnan, an engineer employed by the Air Liquide company. Gagnan miniaturized and adapted it to gas generators in response to a fuel shortage, which was a consequence of German requisitioning. Gagnan's boss, Henri Melchior, knew that his son-in-law Jacques-Yves Cousteau was looking for an automatic demand regulator to increase the useful period of the underwater breathing apparatus invented by Commander Yves le Prieur,〔Jacques-Yves Cousteau with Frédéric Dumas, The Silent World (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1953).〕 so he introduced Cousteau to Gagnan in December 1942. On Cousteau's initiative, the Gagnan's regulator was adapted to diving, and the new Cousteau-Gagnan patent was registered some weeks later in 1943.〔(The ''Musée du Scaphandre'' website (a diving museum in Espalion, south of France) mentions how Gagnan and Cousteau adapted a Rouquayrol-Denayrouze apparatus by means of the Air Liquide company (in French). )〕 After the war, in 1946, both men founded La Spirotechnique (as a division of Air Liquide) in order to mass-produce and sell their invention, this time under a new 1945 patent, and known as CG45 ("C" for Cousteau, "G" for Gagnan and "45" for 1945). This same CG45 regulator, produced for more than ten years and commercialized in France as of 1946, was the first to actually be called the "Aqua-Lung". In France, the terms ''scaphandre autonome'' ("scuba set"), ''scaphandre Cousteau-Gagnan'' ("Cousteau-Gagnan scuba set"), or CG45 were meaningful enough for commercialization, but to sell his invention in English-speaking countries, Cousteau needed an appealing name following English language standards. He then coined the trade name ''Aqua-Lung''. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, La Spirotechnique started exporting the Aqua-Lung and leasing its patent to foreign companies (like the British Siebe Gorman). These operations found great success. The Rouquayrol-Denayrouze apparatus didn't achieve as much success because the compressed-air tanks made with the technology of the time could only hold 30 atmospheres, which allowed dives of only 30 minutes at no more than ten meters deep.〔(Description of the Rouquayrol-Denayrouze apparatus in the ''Musée du Scaphandre'' website (a diving museum in Espalion, south of France) )〕 Before 1945, French divers preferred their then traditional diving helmets and diving dresses. When the Aqua-Lung became available for commercial use, divers around the world found a scuba device smaller and easier to carry than its precursor, which in fact was almost completely unknown outside of France. In addition, and most importantly, the Aqua-Lung could be mounted on stronger and reliable air tanks holding up to 200 atmospheres,〔Cousteau quickly describes the two Aqua-Lung prototypes used to shoot the film ''Épaves'' in 1943, when Cousteau mentions his cylinders' highest pressure (in French).〕 allowing extension of diving duration to more than an hour at significant depths (including the needed time for decompression stops). The first Cousteau-Gagnan Aqua-Lungs (like the CG45 of 1945 or the Mistral of 1955) were mainly twin-hose open-circuit scuba. They have since been made by various manufacturers with varying design details and numbers of cylinders. Like modern open-circuit scuba with single-hose regulators, they consisted of one or more high pressure diving cylinders and a diving regulator (the ''Aqua-Lung'') that supplied the diver with breathing gas at ambient pressure via a demand valve. For more than ten years, seen in the films ''Épaves'' (''Shipwrecks'', 1943) and ''Le Monde du silence'' (''The Silent World'', 1956) the main scuba equipment used by Cousteau and his divers was an Aqua-Lung mounted on three diving cylinders, one being used as a safe air reserve.〔Capitaine de frégate PHILIPPE TAILLIEZ, ''Plongées sans câble'', Arthaud, Paris, January 1954, Dépôt légal 1er trimestre 1954 – Édition N° 605 – Impression N° 243 (in French)〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Aqua-lung」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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