In a sudden wave of inspiration, I just pulled one of my vintage double hose regulators out of storage and connected it to a scuba tank (single 38 cu. ft., 1800 psi). I have several of them, all of which are unusually rare. This one is a late 50’s U. S. Divers Mistral that is completely original like the one shown above.
BTW, I “borrowed” the image from vintagescubasupply.com. On their website, there is a picture of a Mistral regulator label (http://www.vintagescubasupply.com/labsusd.html) that had been pasted over a J. C. Higgins label by the factory. That’s my regulator and is probably one of the rarest regulators in existence–at least it seems so. If you know anything about it, please post a note.
Anyway, it’s funny how taking a few minutes to reacquaint yourself with something like that can renew your enthusiasm. Now, I am all hot on the idea of organizing some sort of vintage scuba gathering once the weather warms up. Tahoe would be the perfect place since it is fresh water and is exceptionally clear and calm–albeit chilly.