Improvements in Apparatus or Protectors to Enable Persons to Enter Mephitic Atmosphere.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 22nd Apr., 1892
Complete Specification Left, 23rd Jan., 1893-Accepted, 11th Mar., 1893
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus or Protectors to Enable Persons to
Enter Mephitic Atmosphere.
A communication by GUSTAV KLEEMAN, 23, Grosse Johannesstrasse, Hamburg,
in the Empire of Germany, Inventor.
I, LEOPOLD TOLCH of 71 Lord Street, Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster,
Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention has for its object an apparatus for enabling a person to be supplied
with fresh air and to breath in poisonous atmospheres.
It consists. First. Of a helmet with mask and safety apparatus. Second. In a
double acting bellows or other aspirating device. Third. In a hose connecting
these two and supplying the air.
The helmet rests on the head and has a leather or equivalent lining perforated
and resting on the head and is supplied with glases or lenses for the eyes. The
neck leather is buckled tightly round the neck by a strap and any kind of cushion
can be placed below the strap to prevent the air entering. A simple leather bag is
sufficient however without cushions.
The person using it puts on his helmet and goes into the bad atmosphere, which
may be in a house on fire, a coal mine, a chemical chamber or other place filled
with mephitic gas or air. A person outside this atmosphere works the hellows and
so keeps him supplied with air, the air escaping through the top of the helmet or
round the neck, or other convenient part. The hose pipe can however be coupled
to a compressed air supply instead. Above the joint connecting the helmet with
the tube is a mouth piece which serves for signalling and receiving or giving
instructions. This mouth piece can be turned or opened.
The bellows has its two ends joined by a bar securely screwed on by a nut, as it
is double acting; it is fixed by a girdle to the man using it.
A lighting apparatus can be supplied with the helmet the flame being supported
by the air that is pumped in as it escapes.
One advantage of the apparatus is that it allows free use of eyes, ears and mouth
and permits verbal communication.
Dated the 21st day of Anril 1892.
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Of 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, Patent Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus or Protectors to Enable Persons to
Enter Mephitic Atmosphere.
A communication by GUSTAV KLEEMAN, 23, Grosse Johannesstrasse, Hamburg,
in the Empire of Germany, Inventor.
I, LEOPOLD TOLCH of 71 Lord Street, Liverpool in the County of Lancaster,
Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement :-
This invention has for its object an apparatus for enabling a person to be supplied
with fresh air and to breathe in poisonous atmospheres, which may be in a house
on fire, a coal mine, a chemical chamber, a slaughter house, a sewer, ammonia
refrigerating rooms or sugar factories, and other places filled with mephitic gas or
71

page_text: air. The apparatus enables the wearer to respire comfortably when working in
such atmospheres, without hindering him in the free movement of his head or
limbs.
-
In the accompanying drawings:-
Figure 1 is a general view showing how the invention may be applied; and
Figure 2, a view of the helmet or head protector.
A, is the helmet or protector which envelops the head, and is formed with a
mask a, and a leather or equivalent lining or casing a'. The mask is supplied with
mica glasses or lenses B for the eyes. Cis the neck strap which is buckled tight
round the neck, and any kind of cushion can be placed below the strap to prevent
the air entering. A simple leather bag is sufficient, however, without cushions.
D is the mouthpiece: E, joint for affixing the non-collapsible air tube F: G, the
double acting bellows; and H, the helmet valve.
When using the apparatus, one man puts on a suitable girdle, hooks the bellows
in, as shown in Figure 1, affixes the air tube at I, and works the bellows vigorously
for a few seconds in order to clear the pipe. The other man then affixes the
joint E of the helmet to the free end of the air tube F, and, while his attendant
is gently working the bellows, he puts the helmet on his head, stretches the soft neck
leather even, and gradually buckles it tightly together round the neck by means of
the strap C. The fresh air pumped into the helmet by the man outside now con-
tinually flows round the face of the wearer, and escapes through the valve H. The
slight pressure from the air-current inside prevents any gases or smoke entering
from the outside, and the wearer of the mask can now safely enter and work in
rooms filled with suffocating gases. The hose pipe can, however, be coupled to a
compressed air supply, instead of the bellows. The mouthpiece D serves for
signalling and receiving or giving instructions. It can be opened by turning the
cover. The bellows G has its two ends joined by a bar y securely screwed on by a
nut, as it is double acting. A lighting apparatus L can be supplied with the
helmet, the flame being supported by the air that is pumped in, as it escapes.
One advantage of the apparatus is that it allows free use of eyes, ears and mouth
and permits verbal communication. The helmet or head protector depicted in
Figure 2 differs from that shown in Figure 1 only in the air supply tube being
carried round to the back of the wearer where it is not at all liable to trip him up
in walking.
Wearer of bellows can communicate verbally with the other man by speaking:
into the air-hole of bellows as into a speaking tube.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by
my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. A respirating apparatus for enabling persons to enter mephitic atmospheres,
formed of a helmet or protector entirely enveloping the head and supplied with
glasses or lenses for the eyes, a strap adapted to buckle the helmet tightly round
the neck, a device for supplying fresh air through the supply tube to the helmet,
where it flows continually round the face of the wearer, and a valve permitting the
air to escape, substantially as described.
2. In a respirating apparatus, the combination, with the helmet or protector
enveloping the head, of a mouthpiece D formed with a movable cover and serving
for giving or receiving instructions, substantially as described.
3. The general combined arrangement and construction of parts forming the
improved respirating apparatus substantially as described.
1000
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Of 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, Agents for the Applicant.