Ted Eldred

Edward ('Ted') Francis Eldred (16th December 1920 to August 2005) was a pioneer of scuba diving in Australia. He invented the Porpoise (make of scuba gear).

He was born in Melbourne in 1920. As a young man he lived by the sea near Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula south of Melbourne. He started snorkelling as soon as mask, fins and snorkel were available, and wished that he could make or get a hold of some sort of free-swimming breathing set, until World War II intervened. After World War II in the late 1940s he SCUBA dived with a Cousteau-Gagnan type aqua-lung, but found that the effort needed to breathe from it varied with attitude, and at that time sometimes did not deliver all the air that was demanded in severe exertion (this was sometimes called "beating the lung"), so he designed a sport diving oxygen rebreather, and the world's first single-hose open-circuit SCUBA set, both with tradename "Porpoise": see Porpoise (make of SCUBA gear) for both.

Ted's initial efforts were to make an oxygen rebreather safe to use for sporting use. Pure oxygen used in early rebreathers causes CNS poisoning below 33 fsw. Ted reasoned that the rebreather should be designed to stop flowing oxygen when the diver descended below that depth. At a demonstration by the Flinders pier, south of Melbourne, a diver passed out because he failed to purge the system of air. This failure to purge, had resulted in a nitrogen build up. Ted realized that diving equipment using compressed air was needed for sport divers. The French designed open circuit scuba, called the Aqua Lung, was protected by a US patent, so Ted set about designing the Porpoise CA (a prototype), the world's first single hose regulator. This new design was superior to the aqua lung, and did not violate the patent. The first production model was designated the CA1. It was sold as a complete single tank, single hose SCUBA. He also made the CA2, which was a double tank model. The Porpoise single hose SCUBA found it's initial international praise in Arthur C. Clark's 1955 book Coast of Coral. Ted's company was called Breathing Appliances Pty Ltd. His marketing was done by his good friend Bob Wallace-Mitchell. It was difficult to market in those early days, as compressed air was not readily available. The first task was to locate a compressor and a sales point in each of the Australian capital cities. Once this was done, dealers could stock his SCUBA. Ted also created the Popoise Universal, which had a very high supply rate and became the flagship model. Ted made a cheaper model as well. It was called the Sportsman. The Sportsman was a very compact regulator with innovative features now found on regulators of today. It was made of plastic and had an unbalanced first stage.

The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) supported Ted's efforts and adopted the Porpoise Universal for military use. The RAN became the first navy to be equipped with single hose SCUBA. Ted's diving school was established by RAN Commander Maurice "Batts" Batterham, GM. It was the first SCUBA diving school in Australia and the first in the world to teach with the single hose regulator. It was located at the Melbourne City Baths. It was a course designed to promote the new Porpoise, but later other brands of SCUBA were also used. The school continued for about ten years, later sending it's students to the newer Associated Divers Academy.

In 1960 the French firm L'Air Liquide, which owned U.S. Divers Corp., and the patent to the Aqua-Lung, bought Ted out, under threat of flooding his market with their products. The Porpoise continued to be marketed under the name Australian Divers Spiro Pty. Ltd. Ted worked for them for a time, but eventually left diving behind, discouraged by this experience. Later Australian Divers Spiro ceased production of all of the Porpoise models, but had to continue to supply the RAN because of an existing contract. The last Porpoise sold was the RAN variation of the Porpoise Universal in 1976. About 12,000 Porpoise units were produced, but only about 2 dozen are known today.

Ted Eldred was recognized in later life, by the Historical Divers Society, as the inventor of the first successful commercially produced single hose SCUBA. The single hose SCUBA is the type in use today. Ted was presented the first "Ted Eldred Award" for significant contributions to diving.

Ted died in August 2005.

References

*Historical Diving Times No.36 Summer 2005
*Historical Diving Times No.38 Winter 2006

External links

*http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/08/31/1062268475963.html