She's a beauty.
Whoops... wrong vega.
For anyone who has wondered what the lamp handle is made from...
A little back story...
A while back I was searching for the elusive spear gun that might be the base for Fett's ESB sidearm.
Eventually (among other close looking spear guns)
I came across this:
This is a (vintage) Technisub La Spirotechnique Spear gun.
It looked like an interesting lead, so I thought I would dig a little further.
Researching "Technisub La Spirotechnique" at one point lead to a small Italian diving message forum.
Didn't know what they were talking about but, among the pics posted in that thread, I saw this:
I wondered for a second why I knew what this was.
Then Bam! I realized what I was looking at and almost fell off my chair.
This is a "Technisub La Spirotechnique" dive torch, produced under a line of lamps they titled the "Vega".
But, typing any string of words that include "Technisub" and "Vega" into a search engine, only results in finding a 1000 pictures of the
Technisub "Vega 2".
This is actually the third version of the Vega and was Technisub's
reintroduction of the lamp after the original versions were unproduced for many years.
In fact, Technisub is now (2006) phasing in their newest Vega dive torch, the "Vega35".
This is Actually a little more reminiscent of the older style.
The "older style" would be this:
This is the "Technisub - La Spirotechnique, Nuova Vega" dive lamp and is the correct dive torch to create an accurate USCM Shoulder Lamp.
After the discontinuation of the original model, Technisub produced
the "Nuova Vega" (New Vega).
This second (above) model was produced until 1992.
This is the "signature edition" of the lamp that was produced in conjunction with "La Spirotechnique".
(Technisub & La Spirotechnique are both sub-companies of "Aqua-Lung International" )
* La Spirotechnique:
This French company was formed in 1947 to develop the patent for the first AQUA-LUNG regulator invented by Jacques Cousteau and Emile Gagnan. Cousteau was a member of the Board of La Spirotechnique.
NUOVA VEGA TECHNISUB
200 mt of depth
20 watt
1 hour duration
6 batteries
Marked: Technisub-laSpirotechnique
Material: plastic polymer
Dimensions: 24x12,5 cm
All inner and external pieces, including the
body of the lamp, are made of polymer.
Above shows red details and black writing.
It was also available with red details and yellow writing:
and.. Yellow details, black writing:
I recently found that the lamp was also produced as the
"Vega Electronic Mk", without the La Spiro name attached:
(All black)
After the huge amount of time gathering this information, one question kept pressing me...
"Why was this old model called the "Nuova (New) Vega"?
Technisub was no help.
They claimed to only have knowledge of the Nuova version and said even that was produced so long ago that they don't even have product photos anymore.
They claimed the Nuova was number one and the new model is accuratly titled the "Vega2".
With a constant eye on the internet, I found an owner of an original Vega torch and they were kind enough to send me what may possibly be the only existing photos of an original Vega...
This is an original "Vega-Lampada Subacquea".
It was introduced over 3 decades ago and discontinued over 20 years ago.
It has an adjustable light cone and magnetic switches.
It is powered by 6 D cell, 1.5V batteries.
Guaranteed depth: 200 meters.
I almost consider the pics I have of the Subacquea as some of my rarest USCM pics, and they're not even directly related.
If someone were/ is unable to locate a Vega.
(I'd say it's eaiser to find than an alarm box, but tougher than the 560 mic)
The "Technisub 35" (up top) might make a decent alternative.
As well as this:
This is the "Omersub- Showlight" and has similar stylings to the Technisub.
These are available in 35w and 10w, and are listed as the
"Showlight 35W R" and the "Showlight 10W".
There you have it...
All you ever wanted to know about the Lamp handle.
- Damian
TK 826
fyi...
* It's all neatly typed up here but this lamp proved to be one of the toughest prop items I've ever researched.
Reference material and even any mention of it on the net is virtually non existant.
**Collected info for years and have been able to document 12 examples of the Vega.