Evening star., 1941-02-06
New Gadget Allows
Parachute Jumps
From 8 Miles High
Light Oxygen Tank
With Mouthpiece
Described to Doctors
By THOMAS r. HENRY.

Eight mile high parachute jumps |
are possible with special apparatus
Just developed at the Mayo Clinic |.
at Rochester, MINI.
This apparatus, consisting Of /
3-pound oxygen tank strapped to the /
chest and a special mouthpieCe. was
described at the postgraduate course
In military medicine at George |
Washington University today by Dr. .
w. Randolph Lovelace II, surgeon
of the Mayo staff.
A person leaping from a height /.
Of 10000 feet, DR.. Lovelace said, /
probably would lose consciousness in ,
a few seconds because of lack of
oxygen. AS a free-falling body it !
would require about three minutes |
for him to reach the ground and
1t Is probable, from the Mayo test |
chamber experiments, that he would !
recover consciousness in time to pull /
the ripcord of his parachute and |
land safely. If he followed inStruC-
tions, however, and opened up as /
soon as he was clear of the plane,
DR.. LovelaCe said, it is hardly con- /
ceivable that he would reach the .
ground alive. He would perish from
lack of oxygen long before the slow
descending parachute reached an
altitude with sufficient oxygen to
sustain him.
10000 Feet Simulated.
The new apparatus grew directly |
out Of tests in loW-preSsure cham
ber with the pilot of one of the .
new Army interCeptor planes. At a
simulated altitude of 10000 feet the
man tried to remove the face piece
connected with the oxygen tank in
the cockpit and put on a special
apparatus. The operation required .
only an instant. but he succeeded |
only in getting the new mouthpiece
between his teeth. He could not .
turn on the oxygen supply before
losing consciousness. With the new
apparatus the tiny tank, weighing
only three pounds but with an oXy-
gen supply for 18 minutes, is already
in place and he has only TO put the
tube in his mouth. Even then, the
Mayo experiments showed, there
was likely to be trouble. Even mo- /
mentary lack of oxygen at such alti-
tudes causes the mouth to sag so
the mouthpiece will fall out. This
difficulty has been overcome by an
especially arranged device.
The apparatus was developed in
association with Capt. o. o. Ben !
son, medical director of Wright
Field.
Other Mayo Clinic experiments,
DR.. Lovelace said. have demon
strated that the greatest height to
which the average man can go with
out a supply of oxygen is about
$4,000 feet. This would require an
exceptional individual and most
persons would pass out" completely
at approximately the height of
Mount Everest.
At $4,000 feet the test pilot upon
whom the Mayo Clinic experiments
were made developed commissions in
40 seconds, breathing 100 per cent
oxygen. This makes $4,000 feet ap-
proXimately the limit to which fight
ing planes can go without sealed
cabins. This figure might be pushed
up to 10000 feet for exceptional
individuals.
Air Bends Different Matter.
An entirely different problem, he
pointed out. is that of air bends
or accumulation of nitrogen bubbles
in the blood as one ascendS rapidly
from a sea-level air pressure on the
body of about 80 tons to the eX-
tremely low pressures at high alti-
tudes Mayo Clinic tests have shown
that by breathing pure oxygen for
about an hour it is posSible-in the
low-pressure chamber-to reach an
altitude of 10000 feet in two min
utes without developing these bends
The Mayo doctors, DR.. Lovelace
said, now are conducting expert
ments on transportation of sick and
wounded by plane even at moderate
attitudes and some hitherto un-
known phenomena are being re-
vealed 1t might become very seri-
Gus for a person with bullet wound
in the abdomen, with the almost GER
tain accumulat of gases, he
pointed out.
In connection with the expert
ments 10 Mayo Clinic doctors have
learned to fly and 10 more now are
undergoing training.