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Post by Tusker on Apr 8, 2023 13:54:39 GMT -8
After at least a year, I've finally tracked down an early copy of The Silent World. And unlike all of the sellers trying to get $200+ for early editions on eBay, I got it for $20 shipped. I'm not entirely sure it's a first edition but it does have the 1950 copyright and the 1953 printing information. This particularly copy came from a sale in Oregon after being in the library of an Air Force base in the area. Prior to that, it was at RAF Station Woodbridge in county of Suffolk, England. Now I'm going to want an early Aqua-Lung and a cotton tank harness . . .  Jacob |
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Post by tomcatpc on Apr 9, 2023 7:37:31 GMT -8
I need to go check my Dive Books and see if I have that one? Hold on...yes, I do have a copy, but missing the dust cover. As for the cotton harness...I was given one a few years ago when I first started diving vintage. I actually like it better then a rigid backpack. Seems they take up less space as well.
Mark
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Post by surflung on Apr 25, 2023 12:44:07 GMT -8
Congrats on your acquisition. I have a used paperback version and it is falling apart. Quite an amazing read... Far more info on the early years of the AquaLung than the movie. The trials and tribulations show a lot of seat-of-the-pants pioneering.
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Post by antique diver on Apr 30, 2023 9:49:59 GMT -8
Congrats on your acquisition. I have a used paperback version and it is falling apart. Quite an amazing read... Far more info on the early years of the AquaLung than the movie. The trials and tribulations show a lot of seat-of-the-pants pioneering. I was especially captivated by the harrowing tale of their first cave diving experience (p.69). YIKES!  |
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Post by SeaRat on May 10, 2023 8:28:41 GMT -8
I need to go check my Dive Books and see if I have that one? Hold on...yes, I do have a copy, but missing the dust cover. As for the cotton harness...I was given one a few years ago when I first started diving vintage. I actually like it better then a rigid backpack. Seems they take up less space as well. Mark Mark, I'm glad you like that harness I sent to you. It wasn't getting much use here in my shed.  Now, I still have my original versien of The Silent World, the text that got me started diving. I also watched the movie when it came out. Between 1959 and 1963, when I was finally certified by LA County Instructor Roy France, this was my only text for learning diving. I got the 1953 edition of The Silent World, and it is a bit thread-bare now. It's cover is torn, from all the readings I did of this book (at least three times through the entire book as I was starting diving). That section on "Cave Diving," was especially interesting, as it involved JY Cousteau and Frédérick Dumas being poisoned by carbon monoxide on a deep dive into the Fountain of Vaucluse. John |
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Post by sitkadiver on May 16, 2023 11:29:20 GMT -8
A great and necessary book for any dive collection! I've been buying books from Alibris for years, very reasonable and lots of second books if you're more interested in reading than collecting. www.alibris.com/books |
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Post by nikeajax on May 16, 2023 12:24:15 GMT -8
A great and necessary book for any dive collection! I've been buying books from Alibris for years, very reasonable and lots of second books if you're more interested in reading than collecting. www.alibris.com/booksDave, excellent recommendation: I love ALibris  About ten years ago I bought a first edition of "Two Eggs on My Plate" by Oluf Reed-Olsen: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oluf_Reed-OlsenHe was a Norwegian resistance fighter during WW-II, it could also have been called "How I Effed with the Nazi Invaders and Lived to tell about it". It was originally sold at a book shop in London, which sorta ties back Jacob's original post  JB |
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Post by Tusker on Jul 9, 2023 16:50:20 GMT -8
I got around to reading it a week or so back. Like Bill said, the descriptions of their early cave dives are just harrowing.
A small detail I noticed on page 73 in the chapter is the mention of Dumas carrying an "emergency micro-aqualung." Has anyone seen one of these before?
Jacob
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Post by nikeajax on Jul 10, 2023 7:05:42 GMT -8
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Post by Tusker on Jul 17, 2023 16:57:14 GMT -8
Hey JB! It's the word "micro" that got me here. You're probably right — I was just stuck wondering what a bailout bottle in the late 1940s to early 1950s was like.
Jacob
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Post by nikeajax on Jul 18, 2023 7:19:37 GMT -8
I tried to read this book, I just couldn't: I'm glad that you're able to though  It's my personal opinion that he didn't use a professional editor for the translation, his syntax/sentence-structure was utterly maddening, so it was probably a just translated, but very little effort was made to recontextualize what was written in the first place. As a side note about translation: I've noticed in the translated Norwegian books I've read, the quotes are reversed: example: English: "... '...', ..." Scandinavian: '... "...", ...' Also, when I was in Sweden in the mid-1990's the nomenclature in all of the museums was all one century off, so at the time we were in the 19th Century because it was 1997, so now I guess were in the 20th Century because it's 2023. JB |
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Post by Aquala1 on Jul 18, 2023 13:39:12 GMT -8
Hey JB! It's the word "micro" that got me here. You're probably right — I was just stuck wondering what a bailout bottle in the late 1940s to early 1950s was like. Jacob Likeiy a repurposed military surplus CO2 bottle. Disney used WWII life raft inflation bottles as the chest bailouts for the 20,000 Leagues rigs. |
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Post by SeaRat on Jul 18, 2023 17:07:40 GMT -8
Okay, guys, I just took out my very delapidated copy of Cousteau's and Dumas's book, The Silent World, and if you look at the black and white photos, there are two pages (and four photo) of their dives in the Fountain of Vaucluse. In the bottom photo there is a picture of Frédéric Dumas being dragged out of the fountain's waters. The text reads:
Now, if you look at this photo, you will see Dumas' right hand setting down two small cylinders that apparently went down with him. Could this be the "micro-aqualung" noted on page 73 of this book? There is another hand on these cylinders, indicating to me that they had been down with Dumas on the dive.
John
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Post by Tusker on Aug 7, 2023 3:44:16 GMT -8
Good calls the type of bottle being used. JB, I didn't think about the translation aspect — I suspect you're right.
That's probably as much photographic proof as we're likely to find, I bet those are it John.
Jacob
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About ten years ago I bought a first edition of "Two Eggs on My Plate" by Oluf Reed-Olsen:
It's my personal opinion that he didn't use a professional editor for the translation, his syntax/sentence-structure was utterly maddening, so it was probably a just translated, but very little effort was made to recontextualize what was written in the first place.
