SPACO anyone!

[Bryan]

Settle Down! I just have photos at this time. A member in Canada sent me a photo CD of his regulator. He may or may not put it up for auction. I just asked for some pics so everyone could see.

[1969ivan1]

I will take 2....

[Bryan]

Anyone want to guess what it would bring at auction ?

[kgehring]

2200?

[Turtleguy9]

Great Bryan
Any chance of more photos? As most of us will probably never get ahold of one of these, the more photos the better.
Aloha Roger

[Bryan]

Lable

[Bryan]

Any of you early Aqua-Lung guys care to tell the board why the exhaust horn is bent at such an extreme angle as compared to the later regulators.....

[simonbeans]

I guess I will have to ask a question. Or maybe I could make an observation, which will most likely become my question. This appears to be a very, very early Aqua lung regulator? Looks Broxtonish, but pre? I have never even heard of this Spaco. Tell me I am not alone, or have I been living in a cave most of my diving life?

[Bryan]

Allan you should get the previous issue of HDS. Phil Nuytten wrote an EXTENSIVE piece of work on the early Aqua-Lungs with quite a bit of info about the Spaco....You are right, it came a bit before the Broxtons. I think his paper is the best I have ever read on the subject. A++++

[treasureman]

I would imagine they are durved to take the strain off the hoses .

Spaco.. first thing came to mind was a cooking implement...shows you what i know.

The horshoe looks like one of the NAvy jobbies. Serious corrosionto boot. Of course anyone who buys this will have to also buy some of the regulator cleaner on bryans site. That stuff works real good...even more so in a ultrasonic cleaner.

[oldmossback]

The yoke looks thick.......is that the way they were originally?

[Bryan]

You are both right. According to the information in Phil Nuyttens paper the CG45/Spaco type regulators were made to have the yoke facing the back of the divers head. The extreme curve of the box horn took a lot of strain off of the hoses. After a short while everyone just turned them around on the valve and used them like we do today.

Yes the yokes are that thick and the double hose Spirotechneque regulators up unitl the mid 70's had the same yoke. The French valves must be thinner....
On all but a few of the La Spirotechnique regulators that I have sold I had to switch out the yoke with a later model or one from a Spiro single hose so the regulator could be used on domestic cylinder valves.

[Phil Nuytten]

Hi, Bryan:
Nice to see the guys getting excited about a SPACO - for my money, one of the rarest of the early tube suckers. This one's in pretty tough shape, tho' . .please also note that not all the internals are original. That is, some early technician/repairman has replaced the original parts with later DA parts. ( after 1952)You can also see where the 20 mm hose was replaced by a standard one incher which had to be shoved up onto the shoulder to clamp. Most just wound tape around the horns until they reached the right size - altho I have seen some carefully made solid rubber adapters.
If the owner decides to auction it, I'd sure go after this one for parts and/or to restore configuration and condition. I'd trade a CG 45 for this one, anytime!