AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR SUPPLYING AIR TO PERSONS IN WATER, AND IN MINES OR OTHER PLACES
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Paul Pautard, of Castres, Tarn, in the French
Empire, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS
FOR SUPPLYING AIR TO PERSONS IN WATER, AND IN MINES OR OTHER PLACES."
Sealed the 12th March 1861, and dated the 14th September 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Paul Pautard at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
14th September 1860.
I, PAUL PAUTARD, of Castres, Tarn, in the French Empire, Civil Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS
FOR SUPPLYING AIR TO PERSONS IN WATER, AND IN MINES, OR OTHER PLACES," (com-
municated to me by Benoit Rouquayrol, Engineer, resident at Firmy, Frenh
Empire,) to be as follows:-
The Inventor has designed an apparatus which may be used; 1st, to enable
a person to remain a certain time, say, an hour under water; 2nd. the appara-
tus may be used in wells, mines, and other places charged with mephitic or
Don-respirable gases; and 3rd, it may be used to regulate the outlet of com-
pressed gases. I take a receiver, say, in metal, and force therein air com-
pressed to from 20 to 30 atmospheres; a rigid wooden or other suitable plate

page_text: of corresponding shape to t e head of the receiver is connected to the receiver
by a band of leather, caoutchouc or other suitable flexible material and a
stopper with grooves in it is attached to the inside of the plate, and enters an
outlet aperture in the top of the receiver; the compartment between the top
of the receiver and the bottom of the plate contains air at the ordinary atmos-
pheric pressure. A tube leads from an opening made in the top of the plate
into a mask or inhaling apparatus and is furnished with a valve; a passage is
provided for the air that is expired into a bag for the purpose. When
inhaling, a vacuum is being created in the compartment over the top of
the receiver, whereupon the air will escape through or round the plug to fill
that compartment.
For a
Another form of apparatuses to enable a person to remain a considerable
time submerged, and in places where the atmosphere would not be fit for
respiration, cousists in similar arrangements to those before described with
the addition of a vase containing caustic potass into which the air after having
been breathed is passed on its return to the compartment at top of the
compressed air receiver in order to free it from its carbonic acid.
compressed oxygen receiver I fit over the top plate applied to the first apparatus
described a plate with holes through it opening into another compartment,
the top of which is made with perforations. The upper compartment has an
india-rubber dise fitted all over it, which alternately plays against the bottom
and top of the compartment in which it is placed. To fill the receivers I
screw them on a closed vessel, and by pumping water into this vessel the
water drives the air through a valve in the bottom of the receiver. This
apparatus, which I denominate the "Rouquayrol regulator" may be used to
regulate the outlet of compressed gases. Instead of a plate being fixed by a
flexible material to the receiver as first described, the plate may be flanged
and may be made to rise and fall in a water joint provided all round the
receiver
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Paul Pautard in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
14th March 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PAUL
PAUTARD, of Castres, Tarn, in the French Empire, Civil Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord

page_text: One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of Her reign
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Paul Pautard, Her special licence that I, the said Paul Pautard,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Paul Pautard, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IM-
PROVED APPARATUS FOR SUPPLYING AIR TO PERSONS IN WATER, AND IN MINES, OR
OTHER PLACES," (communicated to me by Benoit Rouquayrol, Engineer, residing
at Firmy, French Empire,) upon the condition(amongst others) that I,the said
Paul Pautard, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great
Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Paul Pautard, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed
(that is to say) :-
The Inventor has designed an apparatus which may be used; first, to enable
a person to remain a certain time, say, an hour under water; second, the
apparatus may be used in wells,mines, and other places charged with mephitic
or non-respirable gases; and third, it may be used to regulate the outlet of com-
pressed gases. I take a receiver, say, in metal, and force therein air compressed
to from 0 to 30 atmospheres; a rigid wooden or other suitable plate, of
corresponding shape to the head of the receiver, is connected to the receiver by
a band of leather, caoutchouc, or other suitable flexible material, and a stopper
with grooves in it is attached to the inside of the plate and enters an outlet
aperture in the top of the receiver, the compartment between the top of the
receiver and the bottom of the plate contains air at the ordinary atmospheric
pressure. A tube leads from an opening made in the top of the plate into
a mask or inhaling apparatus and is furnished with a valve; a passage is
provided for the air that is expired into a bag for the purpose.
inhaling, a vacuum is being created in the compartment over the top of
When

page_text: the receiver, whereupon the air will escape through or round the plug to fill
that compartment.
Another form of apparatus to enable a person to remain a considerable
time submerged, and in places where the atmosphere would not be fit for
respiration, consists in similar arrangements to those before described, with
the addition of a vase containing caustic potass into which the air after having
been breathed is passed on its return to the compartment at top of the
compressed air receiver, in order to free it from its carbonic acid.
For a
compressed oxygen receiver I fit over the top plate applied to the first apparatus
described a plate with holes through it opening into another compartment,
the top of which is made with perforations. The upper compartment has an
india-rubber disc fitted all over it, which alternately plays against the bottom
and top of the compartment in which it is placed. To fill the receivers I
screw them on a closed vessel, and by pumping water into this vessel, the
water drives the air through a valve in the bottom of the receiver. This
apparatus, which I denominate the "Rouquayrol regulator" may be used to
regulate the outlet of compressed gases. Instead of a plate being fixed by a
flexible material to the receiver, as first described, the plate may be flanged,
and may be made to rise and fall in a water joint provided all round the
receiver.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings is a vertical section of an apparatus
for supplying air constructed according to my Invention; it is shown drawn to
a scale capable of holding about 30 litres (6 gallons,) and is supplied with
ordinary air at a pressure of about 20 atmospheres, more or less.
A is the receiver for air made of any convenient form and of any suitable
material, such as wood, iron, copper; m is an opening at the lower part thereof
through which it is charged; a stopper closes this opening when the receiver is
charged, there is an opening at the upper part of the receiver in which a rod 'T'
is free to slide. This rod Tis fixed to a cover P connected to the case A, by
leather, caoutchouc, gutta percha or other suitable flexible material in such
manner as to form a close and air-tight chamber X; R is a mask or inhaling
apparatus; air is drawn through the tube t from the compartment X, which
in its passage opens the valve V to be first inhaled or absorbed, after which
it is exhaled or forced back into the bag or chamberM, from whence it escapes
by the valve V', but not so quickly as to prevent the pocket M from being
quite full of air, partially foul, but, which becoming mixed at each inspiration
with the air entering through the tube t, economizes the pure air issuing from
the receiver. As the air contained in the compartment X becomes inhaled

page_text: or absorbed, the plate P descends under the pressure of the atmosphere. The
rod T has an opening at its upper part, which coming in contact with the
receiver A effects a coramunication between it and the chamber ✗. So soon
as this communication takes place the air from the receiver escapes and enters
and expands in the chamber X. The chamber X is thus constantly charged.
In order that the passage of air through the tube t, as well as that the
respiratory organs shall act in a natural manner, the pressure of the air con-
tained in the chamber X should not exceed that of the atmosphere, and this
pressure can be obtained by properly weighting the plate P.
Figure 2 is a view of an apparatus similar to that before described, but
furnished with a cap m,n, made of sheet iron, copper, or other suitable materia!
intended to protect the upper part. To charge the receiver with air at a
pressure of several atmospheres an apparatus of the description shown at
Figure 3 is employed. The receiver is placed over a vessel B full of air in
communication through the tube C with a force pamp. A tube from the vessel
Bopens into the aperture in the bottom of the receiver A. The water which
is injected by the pump accumulates in the vessel B, and forces the air con-
tained therein to raise the valve S and enter the receiver A. By letting out
the water from the vessel B and repeating the operation sufficiently often, the
required pressure is obtained, when the receiver A is removed and the stopper
before-mentioned is applied to close the aperture in the bottom thereof.
Figure 4 is a view of my apparatus arranged for artificial air. A is a
caoutchouc receiver containing oxygen, it is encased in wood to protect it;
B is an air chamber, at the upper part of which is a diaphragm S, of caoutchouc,
leather, or gutta percha having a convex or concave form according to whether
the pressure of the atmosphere is greater or less than the internal pressure.
My object here is to absorb the carbonic acid produced in respiration. The
mask R is attached to the mouth and nose; in drawing in a breath the valve
V of the tube t opens, air from the chamber B is inhaled, and on being exhaled
passes through the valve V' and tube t'into the vessel F containing caustic
potash, which absorbs the carbonic acid, while the oxygen is set free and
returns to the chamber B. The pressure of air in the chamber B keeps the
valve M closed, until it is raised by air being inhaled; a certain quantity of
oxygen then escapes, the diaphragm S regulating its flow,and the valve closes,
and so on.
Figure shews in vertical section one of my compressed oxygen respiratory
apparatuses in which the chamber N, 1), contains air, and the receiver A
carbonic acid. As will be seen by referring to the Drawing, this apparatus

page_text: contains the features of those before described, for ordinary air, together
with those for artificial air, therefore its action will be well understood without
any further description. With such an apparatus a person may safely
remain several hours in parts where the air is not respirable. Apparatus of
either of the descriptions above given are very portable and may be fixed on
the back of the person using it, by straps or other appliances, and may
have several tubes connected to it in such manner that several persons can,
if required, breathe or draw air from the same apparatus. The vessel F may
be hung from a belt.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner it is to be performed, I declare that I claim, the improved apparatus
for supplying air to persons in water, and in mines, or other places, constructed
and acting substantially in manner herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I; the said Paul Pautard have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eleventh day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
P. PAUTARD. (L.S.)