Dacor (scuba diving)

DACOR CORPORATION

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The Professional's Choice

Details
Genre	Diving equipment
Founded	1954 | Evanston, Illinois, United States
Founder	Jr Samuel M Davison
Headquarters	Evanston (1955-1959) | Skokie (1959-1970) | Northfield (1970 - Last) , United States
Key people	Samuel Davison, Donald Davison, Robert Oslon, Wallace Mitchell, Vern Pederson.
Products	Scuba Equipment: Scuba Regulators, Aluminum Cylinders, Steel Cylinders, Stainless Steel Cylinders (INNOVATION NEVER RELEASED), Masks, Snorkels, Fins, Backpacks, Wetsuits, Drysuits, Seachute Jackets, B.C Vests, Nautilus CVS, Lights, Instrumentation Consoles, DIve Watches, Photo Equipment, Knives, Stingray Spearguns, Polespears, Merchandise, Bags, Flags/Floats/Lift Bags, Weight Belts, Books, Schematics, Accessories,
Website	Domain Not Operational divedacor.com

DACOR Corporation was a former American manufacturer of scuba diving equipment which was founded in 1954 by Sam Davison Jr. in Evanston, Illinois as "The Davison Corporation". Its name is derived from the first two letters of his surname, "Davison," and the first three letters of "corporation". Since it's foundation, DACOR was one of the five early American diving equipment manufacturers.

Together, they were:

• DACOR
• U.S. Divers (Now Aqua-Lung)
• Healthways (Sold to Scubapro in the early 60's)
• Swimaster (Sold to Voit in the early 60's)
• Voit (Sold to AMF somewhere in the late 50's to early 60's)

HISTORY

Davison Corporation

                                    DACOR 1954 - 1998  

Jr Samuel M Davison - Founder and President DACOR

He and his fellow Marines stumbled upon a new discovery during their service on the island: Japanese underwater goggles. This discovery ignited a desire within him to capture and share the images he encountered. It became a pivotal moment that would shape the trajectory of his life. Upon returning home from the war, he sold vacuum cleaners from 1945 to 1947. Subsequently, in 1948, he enrolled at the University of Miami to pursue engineering, yet his underwater adventures off the shores of Guam continued to exert a profound influence on him. Reconnecting with his childhood friend, Bob Olson, at Lake Michigan further fueled their shared passion for underwater exploration. Using makeshift methods like inverted buckets with air hoses, they improvised until 1950, when Davison learned of the invention of SCUBA equipment in France. Eager to adopt this safer and more efficient gear, he swiftly abandoned the makeshift apparatus. Their dreams of diving were fully realized upon discovering an article in the July 1953 edition of SCIENCE POPULAR magazine featuring "How to construct your own Diving Lung" In those early days, Sam Davison explored depths of up to 170 feet with little knowledge of decompression sickness. To fund his venture into manufacturing diving equipment, he borrowed $10,000 from his mother, Over two years, he meticulously crafted the R-1, a double-hose regulator. Its innovative design caught the attention of a buyer from Montgomery Ward, who purchased ten units initially, followed by an order of 300 more. Convinced of its superiority, Davison resolved to establish his own company for its production. Thus, the Davison Corporation of Evanston, Illinois was founded.

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DACOR REGULATORS - | Model's R & C | Dart | Olympic | Pacer |

(1950's)

In 1955, DACOR began it's production of their first regulator, called "Dial a Breath," sparking a wave of manufacturing. This regulator had two diaphragms and a vane in the airflow to control how much air the diver got. Back then, people thought that making divers breathe harder would make them use less air, but later they found out that wasn't true. (UNFINISHED)

(1960's)

Reference: official Dacor market -

(1970's)

.reference Best of the Best -

(1980's)

Reference: 1987 and 72' 87' (Golden age of Dacor) -

(1990's)

.reference change in the administration downfall and demise of Original Dacor

(2000's)

reference Dacor in disguise

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REGULATOR EVOLUTION

''DIVING LUNG'' | Double-Hose Regulators

1978 | Model C-3NB | A "Balanced" double hose regulator that was never released

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Single-Hose Regulators

199? - 199? | ENDURO

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DACOR merged with Mares. A Dacor open-circuit scuba diving system named DaCor was patented by Dacor, e.g. see U.S. patent 3,128,481 (a safety float, in 1955 by Sam Jr, founder and president. His brother, Donald Davison, was vice president of worldwide sales. After their deaths in the late 1980s, Sam's wife Joan became CEO of the company, and later sold to Mares.

References

Star Wars sound designer Ben Burtt around 1977 used a Dacor Dart scuba regulator to create the heavy breathing of the notorious antagonist Darth Vader.