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Aqua-Lung

Marine Engineering

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The Aqua-Lung is the first successful and safe open-circuit self-contained underwater breathing apparatus, designed in 1942 during the German occupation of France by the naval officer Jacques-Yves Cousteau and the engineer Emile Gagnan. Their breakthrough combined an improved demand regulator, which supplies air only when the diver inhales, with high-pressure air tanks carried on the diver's back, and the system was patented in 1945. Cousteau registered the Aqua-Lung trademark and licensed it first to the U.S. Divers company and then, in 1948, to Siebe Gorman of England, spreading the device through the Commonwealth and establishing the technical foundation of modern recreational and professional scuba diving.

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