Aqua Lung America
Encyclopedia
Aqua Lung America is a Vista, California
Vista, California
Vista is a city in north San Diego County, California. It was incorporated January 28, 1963 and became a charter city on June 13, 2007. Located just seven miles inland from the Pacific Ocean in northern San Diego County, the City of Vista has a Mediterranean climate...

 US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 firm which makes scuba equipment
Scuba set
A scuba set is an independent breathing set that provides a scuba diver with the breathing gas necessary to breathe underwater during scuba diving. It is much used for sport diving and some sorts of work diving....

. Aqua Lung America is a division of Aqua Lung/La Spirotechnique which is on its turn a division of the French company Air Liquide
Air Liquide
L'Air Liquide S.A., or Air Liquide , is a major French company supplying industrial gases and services to various industries including medical, chemical and electronic manufacturers. Founded in 1902, it is first in the world market in its field, now operating in over 80 countries. It is...

.

History

Aqua Lung America, along with Aqua Lung International, is a division of Air Liquide
Air Liquide
L'Air Liquide S.A., or Air Liquide , is a major French company supplying industrial gases and services to various industries including medical, chemical and electronic manufacturers. Founded in 1902, it is first in the world market in its field, now operating in over 80 countries. It is...

, which held the patent on the first "Aqua-Lung
Aqua-lung
Aqua-Lung was the original name of the first open-circuit free-swimming underwater breathing set in reaching worldwide popularity and commercial success...

" regulator until the patent expired.

This "Aqua-Lung" regulator was created by Jacques-Yves Cousteau
Jacques-Yves Cousteau
Jacques-Yves Cousteau was a French naval officer, explorer, ecologist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and researcher who studied the sea and all forms of life in water...

 and Émile Gagnan
Emile Gagnan
Émile Gagnan was a French engineer and co-inventor of the diving regulator used for the first Scuba equipment in 1943...

 during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, in 1943. Both men created the La Spirotechnique company after the war, in 1946, to sell regulators. La Spirotechnique was and still is nowadays a division of Air Liquide
Air Liquide
L'Air Liquide S.A., or Air Liquide , is a major French company supplying industrial gases and services to various industries including medical, chemical and electronic manufacturers. Founded in 1902, it is first in the world market in its field, now operating in over 80 countries. It is...

. To sell its regulators in the USA Air Liquide created another division of La Spirotechnique, U.S. Divers, which ended as a division of Aqua Lung America when La Spirotechnique took the name of its main product: Aqua Lung/La Spirotechnique.

Cousteau and Gagnan first patented their invention in 1943, but they patented again in 1945, this time under different names. In France: Scaphandre Cousteau-Gagnan (Cousteau-Gagnan scuba set) or CG45 (for Cousteau-Gagnan 1945). For all English-speaking countries Cousteau coined the label "Aqua-Lung".

External links

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