There are many aspects of American pop culture and of NAUI that have little or nothing to do with the United States. To illustrate this I pose the question to you "What do the following have in common"?
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Sources - The Journal of Underwater Education International publication of the National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI) |
Superman, Mary Pickford, NAUI Divemaster, and Other Bright Ideas
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Pardon Me, My Maple Leaf is Showing
By Gain Wong, NAUI #5995L
There are many aspects of American pop culture and of NAUI that have little or nothing to do with the United States. To illustrate this I pose the question to you "What do the following have in common"?
Answer: They all have a connection to the city of Toronto.
1. Our American cousins should brace for a shock. Superman is a Canadian. Clark Kent's alter ego was the creation of Toronto cartoonist, Joe Shuster, who was related to Frank Shuster of the Canadian comedy team, Wayne and Shuster. Shuster fashioned Metropolis on metreopolitan Toronto, and the Daily Planet newspaper on the Toronto Daily Star.Superman launced himself from the upper story window of the Daily Star near the present location of the Skydome, home of the Blue Jay (who have won the World Series a few times).
2. Mary Pickford, "America's sweetheart," was a Canadian actress originally named Gladys Smith. She grew up in downtown Toronto (near University Avenue and Dundas Street) and started working for Adolph Zucker's Famous Players Film company in 1914. In 1917, she signed a million-dollar contract and became Hollywood's first movie star.
3. The invention of the light bulb is often erroneously credited to Thomas Edison in 1879. It was actually invented in Toronto six years earlier by Henry Woodward, a medical student at the University of Toronto, and Matthew Evans, a Toronto hotelkeeper. The light bulb was more advanced than Edison's using nitrogen in the bulb as is done today. Edison bought the Canadian patent rights while he was struggling with his own light bulb experiment. In 1873, Woodward and Evans made a working light bulb at Morrison's Brass Foundry on Adelaide Street West. Documents from the time describe it as "consisting of a water gauge glass with a piece of carbon filament filed and drilled at each end for the electrodes, and hermetically sealed at both ends." When their financial backers later balked at putting more money into the project, Woodward sailed to England in disgust. Evans did not have the resources to carry on alone.
In September 1878, Edison announced that he "planned to invent an inexpensive electric light," to replace gaslight. An American syndicate agreed to advance him $50,000. Edison's carbon filament bulb was virtually identical to the successful filament bulb constructed in Toronto. Edison quickly took the credit for inventing the light bulb, but it was Nikola Tesla, his Serbian lab assistant, who produced the equipment and the power source to make it practical.
4. The legendary World War 1 German flying ace, Manfred von Richthofen, was shot down by a pilot from Toronto named Roy Brown. The Torontonian had rushed to the aid of another pilot who was desperately attempting to excape the deadly pursuit of von Richthofen. Mortally wounded, the Red Baron managed to land his scarlet triplane behind allied lines before expiring. After the war, Brown declined to bask in the publicity surrounding his role in the death of the Red Baron.
5. The DCIEM tables were developed in Toronto at the Defence and Civil Institute of Environmental Medicine, a major defense research complex under the authority of the Department of National Defence. The military tables were quickly adopted by the naval forces of several countries. The DCIEM sport diving tables were approved for training by NAUI and other training agencies. The sport tables and procedures were designed by an obscure NAUI Instructor in Toronto, in collaboration with the senior scientists in the DCIEM Experimental Diving Unit.
6. The NAUI logo- a strong and conservative graphic- was designed in Toronto by C. Ben Davis (NAUI #101) and other NAUI members in 1975. The elected representative of NAUI Canada unveiled the design at a NAUI meeting in California, where it was unanimously approved by the NAUI Board of Directors as the offical NAUI logo. Recently, with the promotion of NAUI "Worldwide," a pastel graphic - seemingly depicting as asteroid striking Jupiter - was tacked onto the NAUI logo. (What this space rock has to do with diving is an enigma. Perhaps the steroid is doing a front roll entry).
7. The Divemaster leadership category originated in Toronto and was the creation of a goup of Canadian NAUI Instructors. The third NAUI ITC took place a the University of Toronto in August 1961, immediately following the Chicago ITC. Thirty-two NAUI Instructors were certified at the Toronto ITC. It was the instructors associated with NAUI Canada who conducted the very first Divemaster course. Since 1972, the NAUI Divemaster rating has been copied by many other diving agencies, but the NAUI leadership rating continues to be the most highly respected and demanding Divemaster standard.
So pilgrim, what d'ya think of that? Ehh???
Sources - Third Quarter 1998 copyright 1996 NAUI. All rights reserved.
