Dacor is a former American manufacturer of

scuba diving Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply. The name "scuba", an acronym for " Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", was coined by Chr ...

gear which was founded 1953 by Sam Davison Jr. in

Evanston, Illinois Evanston ( ) is a city, suburb of Chicago. Located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, it is situated on the North Shore along Lake Michigan. Evanston is north of Downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, ...

as "The Davison Corporation", from which Dacor was coined by using the initial syllables, "Da" and "cor". Dacor was one of the five original United States diving gear makers: * U.S. Divers: renamed as Aqua Lung America, which see. *

Healthways Tivity Health, formerly Healthways, is a provider of health improvement, fitness and social engagement solutions. Tivity Health is headquartered in Franklin, Tennessee and has campuses in Franklin, Tennessee and Chandler, Arizona. The company wa ...

, now part of

Johnson Outdoors Johnson Outdoors Inc. () produces outdoor recreational products such as watercraft, diving equipment, camping gear, and outdoor clothing. It has operations in 24 locations worldwide, employs 1,400 people and reports sales of more than $315 millio ...

. *

Voit Voit (official name: "Industrias Voit S.A. de C.V.") is a sports equipment manufacturing company based in Mexico. The company was founded by German Americans, German American entrepreneur William J. Voit (1880–1946) of Worthington, Indiana. Cu ...

* Dacor: Dacor merged with Mares. A Dacor open-circuit scuba named DaCor was patented by Dacor; e.g. see (a safety float) in 1955 by Sam Jr, founder and president. His brother, Donald Davison, was vice president and worldwide sales. After their deaths in the late 1980s, Sam's wife Joan became CEO of the company, and later sold to Mares. * Swimaster: became part of Spearfisherman (company), which became part of

. '' Star Wars'' sound designer

Ben Burtt Benjamin Burtt Jr. (born July 12, 1948) is an American sound designer, film director and editor, screenwriter, and voice actor. As a sound designer, his credits include the ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana Jones'' film series, ''Invasion of the Body ...

around 1977 used a Dacor scuba regulator to create the heavy breathing of the notorious antagonist

Darth Vader Darth Vader is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. The character is the central antagonist of the original trilogy and, as Anakin Skywalker, is one of the main protagonists in the prequel trilogy. ''Star Wars'' creator George ...

References

External links

Dacor's current website

Official Dacor website
as it was on 1 August 2008. Diving engineering Diving equipment manufacturers {{Underwater-diving-stub