LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Cousteau: Jacques Cousteau
built 151 days ago
Jacques Cousteau was a French naval officer who had become acquainted with high altitude breathing systems used on aircraft. As an avid breath-hold diver he realized the potential for using such a system for breathing underwater. The engineering concepts were basically the same and the regulators could be adapted for diving. To implement the idea, in Paris in 1943, he and his partner, Emile Gagnan, an engineer with L'Air Liquide, they worked on their idea, using a cooking gas regulator that eventually became the first divers' Aqualung.
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For decades, as the pioneer of systematic underwater exploration, inventor of the Aqua-Lung and the leading exponent of preserving the sea's ecology, Jacques Cousteau was a global media hero. His documentaries of his trips under the oceans were seen wherever TV existed. In the Muslim world, the rumor still endures that he converted to Islam before he died, although his family has respectfully denied it often. His popularity extended through the Soviet and Chinese communist bloc where it endures through TV reruns. On a recent trip through the Caspian Sea, "crowds of people ran out to wave at the Alcyone wherever it went," says Francine.
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In 1968, Cousteau was asked to make a TV series. For the next 8 years, The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau introduced the public to a world of sharks, whales, dolphins, sunken treasure, and coral reefs. In 1974, Cousteau started the Cousteau Society to protect ocean life. The membership of this non-profit group has grown to include more than 300,000 members worldwide. Cousteau was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Reagan in 1985 and in 1989, he was honored by France with membership in the French Academy.
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Cousteau has made more than 120 natural history documentaries. His early films were unique in their time and won major awards. In 1968 he began filming The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau which became a popular series for television world wide. In 1986 he began a new series Discovering the World and more recently he has turned to The Great Rivers. These are some of the titles, in French and English. The dates shown are of the copyright dates on the films.
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Jacques Cousteau was born in St. André de Cubzac (Gironde) in 1910, and entered the French Naval Academy in 1930. From 1933-1935, he was part of numerous campaigns in the Far East aboard the cruiser Primauguet. In 1936, he began experimenting with various prototypes of breathing apparatus, and in 1943, he and Emile Gagnan conceived and built the Aqua-Lung. After participating in the Resistance movement during World War 11, he created and organized, in conjunction with Commander Philippe Taillez, an Experimental Diving Unit in Toulon.
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Jacques Cousteau was born in France in 1910. In 1974, he created The Cousteau Society in order to protect ocean life, and membership of the organization has grown to include more than 300,000 members worldwide. The Hampton headquarters houses artifacts from Cousteau's explorations, replicas of the famous research vessels Calypso and Alcyone, diving equipment and a shark cage. For more information on the Cousteau Society visit http://www.cousteau.org .
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