|
DESCO general
information.
Received from:
Ric Koellner
President
DESCO Corp.
Mr. Bech,
Unfortunately our information on the rebreathers we manufactured is
incomplete.
I can tell you
DESCO was contracted during WWII to produce rebreathers for the
U. S. Office of Strategic Services (forerunner of the CIA) and the first
production run went to them.
The U.S. Navy
also purchased them during the war.
After the war
DESCO adapted the B-Lung to commercial use and marketed them. A
simpler A-Lung was developed for sport diving. When the
dangers of oxygen poisoning became apparent in the early 50's DESCO
discontinued production of rebreathers.
In the book "Mask
and Flippers The Story of Skin Diving (Publisher: Chilton Company
1960)", written by Lloyd Bridges (the actor from Sea Hunt) and
Bill Barada, the rebreather is covered and its falling from favor due to
the poisoning problem is mentioned.
I have included
photos from our files.
The A-Lung
is the unit with the bag in front and the single hose mouthpiece.
The B-Lung
was a double hose unit with a face mask. The early B-Lung used the oval
mask with the nose bumpout. Later B-Lungs used the Jack Browne Mask
adapted to accept the rebreather hoses. Coincidentally a early B-Lung
was offered for sale on ebay and misidentified as a Momsen Submarine
Escape Lung.
DESCO also
offered a C-Lung unit which was a rebreather mounted to the DESCO
Lightweight Suit to make a self contained unit (see photos).
Over the course
of years and several moves to new buildings sales records were lost or
discarded. The reason we know about the OSS contract is a few years ago
a CIA historian contacted us for information. I hope you find this
information useful.
Best regards,
Ric Koellner
President
DESCO Corp.
diveq@execpc.com
|
