Archive for the ‘bcd’ tag
Bcd Buoyancy
Who invented the device of buoyancy control (BCD)?
The jacket style BCD has a history of progressive development. When SCUBA diving first started as a hobby, BCD was not used at all, and "adjustment of buoyancy" the only entrance to the weight (used to overcome the (un) diver's natural buoyancy) and lungs. Oh, and swimming to stay off the bottom and kicking the reef bit was not considered a no-no at that time. lifejackets pilot style front "Mae West" were designed to be used as surface support post-dive. Inflation was by air cylinder or full CO2 cartridge. Mauritius Fenzy had the idea to set an oral inflation tube, allowing the lifejacket should be partially inflated / deflated diving, or inflated the surface (such as OWD students are taught to do with modern BCD), creating the life jacket Adjustable buoyancy (ABLJ). Then someone (Perhaps Fenzy new) idea was to set the inflation hose to the air supply cylinder and save all these complicated efforts to remove and replace the mouthpiece underwater. Then someone had the idea of integrating the beam and cylinder ABLJ in a combined unit - jacket style BCD. The first was made by SCUBAPRO in 1971. As always, the "new" technology was developed by cave divers, who used plastic bottles / jerry cans tied to their speed to adjust their buoyancy while exploring cave where they were carrying tanks and additional equipment. And as ever, scuba heavyweights both decried the BCD as a potential death trap because of its "complexity" and its propensity to float an unconscious diver face to the surface. Despite this, nowadays, almost all trains and sport diver dives on BCD.