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A more successful and safer regulator was mass produced in France from 1865 to 1965 ( although production was twice interrupted during that period ): invented by BenoƮt Rouquayrol in 1860 for survival in flooded mines it was adapted to diving in 1864 with the help of French Navy officer Auguste Denayrouze.
Even though it was independent from the surface for a very short duration, the Rouquayrol-Denayrouze apparatus reached worldwide celebrity after having been mentioned by Jules Verne in his adventure book Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea ; but Jules Verne wildly exaggerated its dive duration without external air supply.
This equipment was the first reliable regulator to be mass produced and was acquired as a standard breathing apparatus by the French Imperial Navy since 1865.
The iron reservoir suffered from a lack of autonomy because the technology of that time was not yet able to provide reliable valves and pressure vessels when gases were highly compressed.
That is why the Rouquayrol-Denayrouze reservoir, in the 1860s, was able to contain only 30 atmospheres of internal pressure, which translated into sufficient air to permit dives no longer than 30 minutes to a depth of no more than ten metres.
The French divers of that time tended to prefer their well known diving dress.
When used in surface-supplied configuration the Rouquayrol-Denayrouze air tank was used for bailout in the case of a hose failure.
Rouquayrol-Denayrouze's mechanism was effective, but its autonomy depended too much on the weak high-pressure reservoirs of its time.
For a longer and more secure autonomy from the surface technology had to wait until the 20th century had brought stronger and reliable compressed air cylinders.

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