Notable Early Manufacturers
Normalair is a firm that is now part of the Honeywell Corporation based in Yeovil (UK). They made an early make of single-hose aqualung that had a fullface mask as standard. Normalair provided the Deep-Dive 500 rebreather sets used by fictional secret agent James Bond 007 in the 1981 film For Your Eyes Only.
Captain Trevor Hampton in the 1950s or 1960s designed an early single-hose aqualung with a full-face mask with a circular window that was a very big, and thus very sensitive demand regulator diaphragm. However, when he patented it, the Navy requisitioned the patent, and by the time the Navy found no use in the patent and released it, the market had moved on and he got no use from it.
The first commercially successful single hose scuba gear was invented by Ted Eldred of Melbourne, Australia, (Porpoise, 1952) although many people were working on the problem at the same time.
The second company to make single hose scuba was also in Melbourne. It was made by Jim Ager who owned Air Dive Pty., Ltd. His regulator was the Sea Bee (1955). Jim still makes scuba regulators and is the longest continuous maker of single hose scuba in the world.
Read more about this topic: Scuba Set
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