IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PROTECTING THE EYES AND RESPIRATORY ORGANS OF PERSONS EXPOSED TO EXTREME HEAT, SMOKE, NOXIOUS GASES, DUST, AND THE LIKE
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Robert Lake, of the Firm of Haseltine,
Lake, & Co., Patent Agents, Southampton Buildings, London, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PROTECTING THE EYES
AND RESPIRATORY ORGANS OF PERSONS EXPOSED TO EXTREME HEAT, SMOKE,
NOXIOUS GASES, DUST, AND THE LIKE." -A communication from abroad
by James Hervey Beardsley, of Brooklyn, New York, United
States of America.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Robert Lake
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 9th March 1874.
I, WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co.,
Patent Agents, Southampton Buildings, London, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PRÓ-
TECTING THE EYES AND RESPIRATORY 'ORGANS OF PERSONS. EXPOSED TO EXTREME
HEAT, SMOKE, NOXIOUS GASES, DUST, AND THE LIKE," a communication, to be
as follows:-
This Invention is designed for use by firemen and others in having
access to or in escaping from burning buildings, or in the extinguish-

page_text: ment of conflagrations when it is desirable to closely approach the flame,
also by miners and others exposed to noxious gases; by stokers, puddlers,
and others, whose occupations ordinarily nécessitate more or less ex-
posure to a high temperature; also by coffee and spice grinders and
others whose employments are commonly in a dusty or noxious atmo-
sphere, and generally by all who under any usual or known conditions
find it necessary or desirable to protect the eyes and respiratory organs
from heat and injurious substances, floating or suspended in the air.
According to this Invention a duplex shell provided with transparent
eye pieces and formed to fit snugly around the eyes of the person using
the device is provided with a depending mask or curtain of porous or
fibrous material, which when the device is in use as aforesaid covers
the lower portion of the face including the mouth and nostrils, the eyc.
pieces protecting the eyes without practically impairing the vision of
the wearer, and the curtain filtering or straining the air as it is
drawn inward through the same by inhalation.. The curtain should
to secure this result be moistened with water which in high temperatures
tends to measurably cool the air inhaled, and to insure the perfect
operation of the curtain as set forth; its lower edge should be confined
closely around the neck of the wearer by an elastic band or other
.suitable means.
:
The duplex shell may be made of various materials and within certain
limits may be varied in the details of its construction. This shell has
been made of rigid material, such as papier maché, and sought to so
shape its circumference as to ensure its efficient fitting to the face of the
wearer, and have to a certain extent attained a beneficial result thereby.
But in all cases where my said Invention is made as an article of trade
or with a view to duribility, or for the attainment of the highest possible
degree of utility, or for any other than a temporary or exceptional use I
make the shell of india-rubber or equivalent material stiffened at proper
places in any suitable way, and with peripherical edges sufficiently
pliable or yielding to enable them to adjust themselves upon the face of
the wearer with sufficient closeness to prevent the passage of heat, smoke,
or vapor, beneath the said edges to the eyes,
The said Invention also comprises the combination of a spring with
the duplex shell in such manner as to stiffen the same in the shape
desired, and yet permit the elasticity requisite for the easy and effective

page_text: fitting of the said shell to its place when the apparatus is in use; also
the construction of the aforesaid shell with clastic sockets grooved for the
reception of the transparent eye picces, and permitting the same to be
readily inserted or removed when desired; also the combination of a
sponge or porous pad with the curtain affixed to the shell, the sponge
or pad when wet supplementing or assisting the filtering action of the
curtain; also the combination of lenses or lens shaped transparent cyc
picces with the duplex shell furnished with the depending curtain, ·|
whereby the apparatus, while used for the protection of the cycs and
lungs in certain industrics requiring keen vision, may also be made to
serve as magnifying glasses to aid the sight of the operative; also the
combination of colored transparent eye pieces with the duplex shell
furnished with the curtain as set forth, whereby in those employments
where the light aside from the effects of heat is likely to injuriously
affect the sight, while other agencies tend to injure the respiratory
organs, the light may be toned or tempered to any color found most
advantageous under conditions such as just indicated.
•
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
.
filed by the said William Robert Lake in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 8th September 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of March, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William Robert Lake, Her special
licence that I, the said William Robert Lake, my exccutors, adminis
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Robert Lake,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time, and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,

page_text: tends to measurably cool the air inhaled, and to ensure the perfect
operation of the curtain as set forth; its lower edge should be confined
closely around the neck of the wearer by an elastic band or other
suitable means,
The duplex shell may be made of various materials and within certain
limits may be varied in the details of its construction. This shell has
been made of rigid material, such as papier maché and I have sought to
60 shape its circumference as to ensure its efficient fitting to the face of
the wearer, and to a certain extent attained a beneficial result thereby.
But in all cases where the said Invention is made as an article of trade
or with a view to durability, or for the attainment of the highest possible
degree of utility, or for any other than a temporary or exceptional use I
make the shell of india-rubber or equivalent material stiffened at proper
places in any suitable way, and with peripherical edges sufficiently
pliable or yielding to enable them to adjust themselves upon the face of
the wearer with sufficient closeness to prevent the passage of heat, smoke,
or vapour beneath the said edges to the eyes.
The said Invention also comprises the combination of a spring with
the duplex shell in such a manner as to stiffen the same in the shape
desired, and yet permit the clasticity requisite for the casy and effective
fitting of the said shell to its place when the apparatus is.in use; also
the construction of the aforesaid shell with elastic sockets grooved for the
reception of the transparent eye pieces, and permitting the same to be
readily inserted or removed when desired; also the combination of a
sponge or porous pad with the curtain affixed to the shell, this sponge
or pad when wet supplementing or assisting the filtering action of the
curtain; also the combination of lenses or lens shaped transparent eye
pieces with the duplex shell furnished with the depending curtain
whereby the apparatus while used for the protection of the eyes and
lungs in certain industries requiring keen vision, may also be made to
serve as magnifying glasses to aid the sight of the operative; also the
combination of coloured transparent eye pieces with the duplex shell
furnished with the curtain as set forth, whereby in those employments
where the light aside from the effects of heat-is likely to injuriously affect
the sight, while other agencies tend to injure the respiratory organs, the
light may be toned or tempered to any color found most advantageous
under conditions such as just indicated.

page_text: Figure 1 is a front view of an apparatus made according to my In-
vention; Figure 2 is a partial longitudinal section of the same on a
larger scale as seen from the rear; and Figure 3 is a vertical transverse
section on the line x, x, Figure 1.
.
;
A is a
duplex shell, that is to say, a shell in two connected parts so
arranged as to fit simply about the eyes of the wearer, across the fore-
head and across the nose, as indicated in Figure 1, with its circum-
ferential edge fitting snugly against the face. At its central part, as
represented in Figure 2, this shell is extended downward and recessed
This recess
at a with two fins b, one on each side of the said recess.
permits. the shell to be fitted over the nose, the fins pressing snugly upon
the latter with a yielding pressure.
If preferred this part of the shell may be made to conform to the
contour of the nose, as shewn in Figure 1..
The shell A is preferably made of soft or flexible india-rubber pressed
or moulded to the requisite shape by any of the known appropriate
methods practiced in the manufacture of india-rubber goods. Inserted
in this shell during the process of making or shaping the same is a
spring B, the circumferential contour of which is shewn in Figure 2.
This spring is made of sheet steel or equivalent spring metal, and is so
shaped that when the protector is applied to the face the central upper
portion c of the shell A will lie across the forehead, the end. portions y
will clasp the temples, and as just herein set forth, the downwardly project-
ing fin portions will clasp the upper part of the nose. By this means the
circumferential parts of the shell are caused to fit snugly against the
face, the soft rubber extending in a flange-like manner beyond the peri-
phery of the spring, and by being thus kept in close contact with the
face about the eyes effectually protects the latter from access of smoke,
hurtful vapors, irritating gases, dust, and the like, when the apparatus
is used; as for instance in burning buildings, mines, manufactories, and
the like, and in localitics where noisome vapors are present.
It is of course to be understood that the shell is furnished with
transparent eye pieces C which admit of unobstructed vision to the
wearer of the apparatus. These eye pieces may be of either glass or
mica, and to permit their insertion holes a are provided in the spring B.

page_text: at suitable places therein, and of a size somewhat greater than that of
the eye pieces themselves."
.!.
It is important that the eye pieces C. should not only be capable of
ready insertion in place, but that they should be so closely fitted in their
sockets that nothing hurtful shall pass between them, and their bearings
in their sockets to the eyes or portion of the countenance sought to be
guarded by this device. To this end the soft rubber projecting inward
from the edges of the holes a' in the spring B is shaped to provide the
sockets of the eye pieces. These sockets comprise each an inner flange c
against which rests the rear inner edge of the eye piece which it
secures, and an clastic roll or bead f¹ which bears against the front edge
of such eye piece; the groove formed between the bead f¹ and flange ci
receiving and retaining the circumferential portions of the eye piece.
These sockets for the reception of the eye pieces are formed during the
moulding or manufacture of the shell.
In order to insert the eye pieces it is necessary only to press outward
and downwards the beads f, place the eye pieces in position and allow
the beads by their own elasticity to resume their position. The elastic
character of the india-rubber keeps it in close or air-tight contact with
the contiguous periplierical surfaces of the eye picces and thus prevents, as
herein-before noted, any leakage or passage of detrimental matter there-
through.
The shell. A is furnished with a depending curtain D of woollen cloth
or other porous or fibrous material, and provided at its lower edge withi
an elastic cord. or other suitable means for confining it about the lower
part of the face to protect the mouth and nostrils from the entrance of
smoke, gases, noisome vapors, dust, or other detrimental matter, and
which curtain should be moistened with water when in use. Further-
more, an elastic strap or band of any suitable material should be pro-
vided to the shell A in such manner that passed around the back of the
wearer's head it may bring the apparatus simply against the face &
prevent its casual displacement. Arranged within the curtain but below
the shell is a sponge F which may be held in place by a pin m.attaching
it to the curtain.
When the apparatus is, in use this sponge is moistened with water
and (when the apparatus is in place upon the face as herein-before set
forth) is brought over, or upon the mouth and nostrils, and acting as a

page_text: Sixth. The combination of the colored eye pieces with the duplex shell
furnished with the depending curtain, as herein set forth and for the
purpose specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Robert Lake, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Eighth day of September,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four
Witness,
H. J. NOONE,
8, Southampton Buildings,
London.
W. ROBT. LAKE.
(L.S.)