Sears J.C. Higgins Aqua-Air-Lung

[admin]

I finally acquired this rare beauty for my collection and I'm now able to identify what it is. Apparently they were sold from 1956-58 and mine has Over Pressure Breathing boxes and body but with a Mistral nozzle. Since the Mistral did not appear until 1958, I wonder if the 1956-57 J.C. Higgins had the Over Pressure nozzle with the interior hose connected to the metal mouthpiece.
Has anyone ever seen a J.C. Higgins with the Over Pressure Breathing hose assembly? I also wonder if the 1957 and 1958
Sears catalogs show a clear enough photo to identify the hose assembly.
The label is a decal and the bottom box is not drilled for rivets or cut out for name plate tabs. Also my model has a gasket on both sides of the body instead of just one on the inside like all other US Divers single stage regulators had. It's hard to say if this was a factory deal to protect the paint or if someone added the extra gasket later on. It's also interesting to note that this painted regulator has chrome box clips instead of the box clamp ring that the blue painted Voit 50 Fathoms used (to keep from chipping the paint).
These regulators would look even better with yellow hoses to match the label.

[Broxton Carol]

That is a low line offering to Sears to give them a scuba regulator for sale, at a very reasonable price. Likely there were boxes of un used broXton parts still there, and they made up these regs to order. They just stuck on the label, rather than punching and riviting the old style label. I wouldnt think they had anything more than put the hoses on there as anything would DRIVE UP COST, and and thats something Sears I think would not want. US divers likely had a big inventory of surplus overpressure regs after 1956, and wouldnt want to build anything to directly compete with them selling their remaining stocks. That is a honey of a reg. You are very fortunate to own it!

[diverdown1955]

DAN,
SPRING 1956 IN FARGO N.D. MY DIVE BUDDIE AND I CAME AROUND THE CORNER INTO THE BASEMENT SPORTING GOODS DEPARTMENT OF THE SEARS AND ROEBUCK STORE. WOW! SEARS WAS BUILDING REGULATORS. WE TOOK TIME TO POINT AND LAUGH......HAD WE ANY SMARTS WE WOULD HAVE BOUGHT A PAIR AND SALTED THEM AWAY TILL 2007! AS WE RECALL THEY WANTED $29.95 FOR THE REGULATOR. OF COURSE AT THE TIME THAT WAS MORE THEN I WAS MAKING A WEEK AS A STOCKBOY!

CONGRATES DAN , THAT REGULATOR LOOKS TO BE IN VERY GOOD SHAPE!

BEST REGARDS,
JERRY

[william]

That is a REAL BEAUTY there Dan. How in the World do you find such Fantastic Vintage Diving Items, ha,ha. I wish I could do that too. "Way to go Dan, it is Really Beautifull". William

[scubadubado]

That Reg. sure looks Great you did a Super job on it . My blue Mistral that is the same has the original Hoses and Mouth piece . Absolutely no doubt , the hoses are Cracked and Crumbling , Genuine 50 year old rubber Patina . It has the USD's Black Hoses and the straight Black Kleer-ez Mouth Piece. The other one I have is the JC Higgins like yours but the hoses and mouth piece have been changed to Health ways . I might put some of your Yellow hoses on it and a Black Kleer-ez MP . I know it won't be original but it would look really sharp . Regarding what came on both of those model regs . Originally they both must have had the Black Hoses and the Black
Kleer-ez Mp's .
Another collector friend of ours has both of those model regs. that I've seen . His are original and both his blue Mistral and JC Higgins have the black hoses and the straight Kleer-ez MP's on them . So I'm pretty sure they all came that way . Plus the few original ones I've seen all had the black Tinnerman clamps .
I was told they made those regs. for only one year. Sears didn't sell too many of them for Some reason? That's what really makes them so Rare . It took USD's a while to sell off the remaining Blue painted regs. that they changed to the Green and Silver Mistral Label models. I heard that USD's never advertised the Green and Silver Labeled blue bodied Mistrals in any of their catalogs. So that also indicates they had very few of them to sell.

[JES]

Congratulations Dan!

I agree with the others, you purchased a really nice regulator.