Gas Masks
The History of Gas Masks
The gas mask was an evolutionary invention and
involved many inventors
by Mary
Bellis
Inventions that aid and
protect the ability to breath in the presence of gas, smoke or other poisonous
fumes were being made before the first use of modern chemical weapons.
Modern chemical warfare began
on April 22, 1915, when German soldiers first used chlorine gas to attack the
French in Ypres.
But long before 1915, miners,
firemen and underwater divers all had a need for helmets that could provide
breathable air.
Early prototypes for
gas masks were developed to meet those needs.
EARLY FIRE FIGHTING AND DIVING MASKS
In
1823, brothers John and Charles Deane patented a smoke protecting
apparatus for firemen that was later modified for underwater divers.
In 1819, Augustus Siebe
marketed an early diving suit. Siebe's suit included a helmet in which air was
pumped via a tube to the helmet and spent air escaped from another tube.
The inventor founded Siebe,
Gorman and Co to develop and manufacture respirators for a variety of purposes
and was later instrumental in developing defense respirators.
In 1849, Lewis P. Haslett
patented an "Inhaler or Lung Protector," the first U.S. patent
(#6529) issued for an air purifying respirator.
Haslett's device filtered
dust from the air.
In 1854, Scottish chemist
John Stenhouse invented a simple mask that used charcoal to filter noxious
gasses.
In 1860, Frenchmen, Benoit
Rouquayrol and Auguste Denayrouse invented the Résevoir-Régulateur, which was
intended for use in rescuing miners in flooded mines.
The
Résevoir-Régulateur could be used underwater. The device was made up of a nose
clip and a mouthpiece attached to an air tank that the rescue worker carried on
his back.
In 1871, British physicist
John Tyndall invented a fireman's respirator that filtered air against smoke
and gas.
In 1874, British
inventor Samuel Barton patented a device that "permitted respiration
in places where the atmosphere is charged with noxious gasses, or vapors,
smoke, or other impurities," according to U.S. patent #148868.
GARRETT MORGAN
American
Garrett Morgan patented the
Morgan safety hood and smoke
protector in 1914.
Two years later, Morgan made national news when his gas mask was used to rescue 32 men trapped
during an explosion in an underground tunnel 250 feet beneath Lake Erie.
The publicity led to the sale
of the safety hood to firehouses across the United States.
Some historians cite the
Morgan design as the basis for early U.S. army gas masks used during WWI.
Early air filters include
simple devices such as a soaked handkerchief held over the nose and mouth.
Those devices evolved into
various hoods worn over the head and soaked with protective chemicals.
Goggles for the eyes and
later filters drums were added.
CARBON MONOXIDE RESPIRATOR
The
British built a carbon monoxide respirator for use during WW1 in 1915,
before the first use of chemical gas weapons.
It was then discovered that
unexploded enemy shells gave off high enough levels of carbon monoxide to kill
soldiers in the trenches, foxholes and other contained environments.
This is similar to the
dangers of the exhaust from a car with its engine turned on in an enclosed
garage.
CLUNY MACPHERSON
Canadian
Cluny Macpherson designed a
fabric "smoke helmet" with a single exhaling tube that came with
chemical sorbents to defeat the airborne chlorine used in the gas attacks.
Macpherson's designs
were used and modified by allied forces and are considered the first to be used
to protect against chemical weapons.
BRITISH SMALL BOX RESPIRATOR
In
1916, the Germans added larger air filter drums containing gas neutralizing
chemicals to their respirators.
The allies soon added filter
drums to their respirators as well.
One of the most notable gas
masks used during WWI was the British Small Box Respirator or SBR designed in
1916.
The SBR was probably the most
reliable and heavily used gas masks used during WWI.
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