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His name means "John" when translated into English. He was born in
Saint-Andre-de-Cubzac, France, in 1910. If you don't where that is,
let me help you with your geography: It is located north of Spain
and south of Belgium. France, that is. As far as the location of
Saint-Andre-de-Cubzac, I have no idea where that is.
Unlike another Frenchman, Joseph Guillotin, he did not have his
invention named after himself. (That didn't work out so well for
Guillotin's children, by the way, who later changed their last
name.)
This Frenchman's main invention allowed people to dive to
underwater depths that were previously impossible to reach. The name
of his invention is an acronym: self-contained underwater breathing
apparatus, or SCUBA. Scuba allows divers to explore the ocean depths
by breathing compressed air rather than oxygen.
The Aqua-Lung was his first version of scuba. It wasn't as
efficient as the current type of scuba gear because it didn't
recycle the same air that a diver would exhale. As a result, the
Aqua-Lung (or aqualung) did not enable divers to stay underwater as
long as the current version of scuba gear does.
The inventor, explorer and filmmaker traveled the waters in his
boat, the Calypso, beginning in 1950. Calypso was used as a
minesweeper before it was used for underwater exploration. The
inventor with the red cap who became a household name aboard his
Calypso was Jacques Cousteau. He co-invented the aqualung with
fellow Frenchman Emile Gagnan.
Cousteau was involved in espionage activities for the French in
World War II. He even won an award for stealing the Italian navy's
code book; in fact, the Italian navy never even knew it was stolen.
Hmmm, a French war hero. How rare!
It was during the war that Jacques Cousteau made his first
underwater films and co-invented the aqualung in 1943. His interest
in photography led him to co-invent an underwater camera that he
called the "Calypso-Phot." He licensed it to Nikon.
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If not for a fateful car accident at age 26, Jacques Cousteau
would never have become an underwater explorer. In 1930, while he
was a naval officer training to be a pilot, he was driving to a
friend's wedding one night when his headlights went out, causing him
to crash. The accident ended his flying days, and as a result he
turned to the water.
There are a few other things that you might not have known about
Jacques Cousteau...
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He and wife Simone
had two sons, and one of their grandchildren, Fabien Cousteau,
carries on Jacques' legacy as a deep-sea explorer.
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As Jacques Cousteau's
wife, Simone Cousteau became the very first female scuba diver.
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It was Simone's
father who introduced Jacques Cousteau to his scuba co-inventor,
Emile Gagnon.
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Simone died in 1990,
and seven months later Jacques married Francine Triplet, with
whom he had a second family (a boy and a girl) while he was
still married to Simone.
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His aqualung was used
to find and remove enemy mines after World War II.
It was nine years ago June 25 that Jacques Cousteau died, at the
age of 87.
[Paul Niemann]
Paul Niemann may be reached at niemann7@aol.com. You can learn
more about Invention Mysteries by visiting the official
Invention Mysteries website.
Copyright Paul Niemann 2006
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