 His name is John when
translated into English. He was born in Saint-Andre-de-Cubzac,
France, in 1910. If you don't know where that is, let me help you
with your geography: It is located north of Spain and south of
Belgium (France, that is). As for 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 him. (That didn't work out so well for
Guillotin's children, by the way, who later had their last name
officially changed.)
His 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
codebook; in fact, the Italian navy never even knew it was stolen.
(Hmmm, a French war hero. How rare!)
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 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 then licensed it to Nikon.
Yet, 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...
-
He and wife Simone
had two sons, and one of their grandchildren, Fabien Cousteau,
carries on his legacy as a deep-sea explorer.
-
Simone Cousteau
became the very first female scuba diver.
-
It was Simone's
father who introduced Jacques Cousteau to his scuba co-inventor,
Emile Gagnan.
-
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.
-
Jacques Cousteau's aqualung was used to
find and remove enemy mines after World War II. The company is
still around today, known as Aqualung International.
[By
PAUL NIEMANN]
Paul Niemann's column is syndicated
in more than 70 newspapers, and he is the author of the "Invention
Mysteries" series of books. He can be reached at
niemann7@aol.com.
Copyright Paul Niemann 2009
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