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Post by duckbill on Oct 5, 2005 13:04:24 GMT -8
You guys out there with large double-hose collections should be able to help with these. I have noticed a couple of discrepencies regarding DA Aqua-Master timelines vs. physical examples. Can anyone help explain these please?
Most of the information cited can be found right here at Vintage Double Hose.
Here they are:
1) Statement #1- The DA Aqua-Master was first available in shiny chrome in 1964.
Statement #2- U.S. Divers was located at W. Delhi in 1960 and 1961.
Observation - I have seen several W. Delhi DAs (1960-61) in bright chrome (1964+). In light of the two statements above, how can this be? The examples I have seen had no crown, and had a label below the ID tag saying "Made In France". Maybe that has something to do with it. Has anyone seen any examples of W. Delhi DAs which differ from the ones described (no crown, shiny chrome, "Made In France")? If so, please describe.
2) Statement #1- The DA was first introduced in 1958.
Statement #2- DAs were under the W. Pico address from 1958-1959 (or Aug. 1960).
Statement #3- "During the first few years of production, the DA's were not serialized". ie. no serial numbers appeared on the ID tag.
Observation - I have seen many, many examples of W. Pico DAs with serial numbers on the ID plates. How can this be? Shouldn't they be rare or non-existent?
Thankyou.
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Post by Captain on Oct 6, 2005 7:28:56 GMT -8
I recall reading that the Made in France stickers came about because of a strike at U S Divers in California necessitated importing regulators from France during the strike. There also appears to be no logical serial number sequence on regulators. Delhi Avenue's name was changed to West Warner. It is possible that a supply of Delhi labels were still used after the avenue was renamed until the supply ran out. The below site may help you. www.calclassic.org/Regulator/aqualung.html |
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Post by duckbill on Oct 6, 2005 8:32:06 GMT -8
Hi Tom. Thanks for the reply.
Interestingly enough, the site you mentioned shows a 1960 W. Delhi-addressed DA Aqua-Master (Made In France) in SHINY CHROME. Shiny chrome, according to other sources, did not hit the scene until 1964 for the DA. Someone is wrong. Either that label was transferred to another later box, or U.S.Divers was having their DA regulator boxes bright chrome plated prior to 1964.
A poll showing a large number of shiny-chromed, W. Delhi-labeled DAs would tend to rule out the ID plate-transfer idea. That's why I was hoping these guys with huge collections might be able to help to give an idea how many others like this are out there.
Three years would be a very long time to be using up a surplus supply of W. Delhi-addressed tags.
Also, to keep my other question fresh, it would appear that serial numbers appeared on DAs much less than two years after their introduction in 1958, considering the number of W. Pico serialized ID plates I have seen. Has anyone else noticed this? The W. Pico plates with the serial numbers were produced with a space for a serial number (not just as an afterthought on USDs part), and U.S. Divers moved from W. Pico two years after the DA made it's debut, debunking the idea that DAs were not serialized during the first two or few years of production. Any ideas?
Thanks again. Anyone else?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2005 16:23:43 GMT -8
Just to add to the confusion, I recently aquired a DA on ebay, rebuilding it now............address is 3323 w. delhi. santa ana calif.
serial # 907786........a pretty high number I guess compared to the others listed else where on this site.....and it is SHINY CHROME............MADE IN FRANCE lable!
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Post by admin on Oct 7, 2005 11:40:13 GMT -8
Duckbill brings up some interesting points. One thing to remember is that all of this identification is just conjecture because nothing is documented by US Divers as far as I know.
The DA AquaMasters with the Delhi address were all made in France. They all have serial numbers out of sequence with the US Divers numbers and the serial number stampings have larger numbers than the USD regs. The French had used shiny chrome since the 1950's and so the DA's they built also had the shiny chrome. But it wasn't as bright and polished as the USD chrome was when introduced in 1964. I believe the first two years of the DA were not serialized (maybe only a year and a half), then the French models were sold and when they ran out, USD started serializing again. The question is, what number did they start at? Hopefully our contest will narrow down that answer.
Another interesting point- I've never seen a Mistral with the Delhi address but they obviously sold Mistrals in 1960-61. Why weren't they made in France and why didn't they have Delhi on the label? Maybe we need to find someone who worked for US Divers in the early 1960's to answer that question....
Dan
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Post by duckbill on Oct 8, 2005 1:19:25 GMT -8
Ahhh! Thankyou Dan!
It's all coming together now. Now I can stop scratching my head and can blame U.S. Divers for my bald spot!
I wonder if the "Made In France" would have something to do with the short, apparently temporary, move to W. Delhi and avoiding having to set up the tooling for production there. Or were their regulators ever really manufactured at the addresses on the ID tags?
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Post by RMannix on Oct 8, 2005 6:30:16 GMT -8
Ahhh! Thankyou Dan! It's all coming together now. Now I can stop scratching my head and can blame U.S. Divers for my bald spot! I wonder if the "Made In France" would have something to do with the short, apparently temporary, move to W. Delhi and avoiding having to set up the tooling for production there. Or were their regulators ever really manufactured at the addresses on the ID tags? I believe there was no "move" from W. Delhi to W. Warner, the name of the street was changed. |
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Post by duckbill on Oct 8, 2005 10:15:48 GMT -8
Ah, yes! I think you are correct. I do recall that now. Thankyou.
Now it is getting even more interesting.
Were all the W. Delhi DAs labeled "Made In France"? Were there any W. Warner DAs labeled "Made In France" immediately following the name change?
And what about the W. Delhi Jet Airs and Mistrals- Were they also labeled "Made In France"?
As a side note, it must be a real BUMMER for a business when a city decides to change the name of your street! New business cards, new labels, new listings, customer confusion, loss of customers, new tooling (ID tag tooling, in this case), etc., etc. I'd bet it cost some companies mega-bucks.
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Post by Captain on Oct 8, 2005 17:06:21 GMT -8
I rode around for an hour looking for the steet a business was on. Found out the street name had been changed and not updated in the phone book.
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Post by admin on Oct 11, 2005 22:16:17 GMT -8
As far as I know, the DA AquaMasters were the only models with the "Made in France" labels. Also, I have to correct what I stated earlier- the Delhi ones did have a highly polished chrome, at least some of them.
Another good point that 'duckbill' came up with- there are a heck of a lot of DA's with the Pico Blvd address that are serialized. And so maybe they only made the first models that were un-serialized for 6 months or a year. We may never know for sure....
Dan
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