In today's fire service, wearing self-contained breathing apparatus seems as natural as putting on bunker gear. SCBA has become as necessary as hose lines to enter a structure to rescue victims and locate, confine and extinguish an interior fire. But it was not always this way. In fact, breathing under water eventually led to breathing in smoke. The surprise is how long ago this occurred and how many different versions of SCBA there have been.

One of the more interesting historical stories is the evolution of the breathing apparatus. Smoke masks have made a long and interesting journey through time and provide modern firefighters with a connection to those who performed these duties centuries ago.

Fire service anecdotal history retells the stories of long-bearded firemen using their beards dipped in water as a filter to allow entry into smoke-filled environments. Although this did not protect against heat or carbon monoxide, it apparently provided sufficient protection for short interval entries into smoke-filled rooms.

One of the earliest documented cases of the use of breathing apparatus comes from England. In 1818 a farmer's barn caught fire in Whitstable, Kent, a coastal city southeast of London. The barn had many horses and other livestock. The owner used a small hand-operated water pump in an attempt to extinguish the blaze, but the stream was insufficient. He was unable to make his way through the heavy smoke to save his horses. John Deane, then 18 years old, removed the helmet from an old suit of armor and placed it on the farmer's head. Deane then worked the same hand-operated pump to supply air instead of water to the helmet, and the farmer was able to enter the barn and lead his horses to safety.

Deane took employment as a ship's corker at Barnard's shipyard. During this time he discovered the problem of fighting fires within the holds of ships. And in 1823 he perfected a smoke-breathing apparatus, or smoke helmet. The smoke helmet kept out the bad air, and was fed fresh air through a hose that ran from the back of the helmet to an air pump located outside the smoky area. Deane and his brother Charles Deane obtained one of the first patents covering a device to protect firefighters.

Not much happened to the invention for several years. Then in 1827, the Seibe Co. manufactured the first smoke helmets.

The helmet had three visors to allow the wearer to see around him (figure 1). The front had a small vent with a handle for the wearer to open and close it. When it was opened, he would be able to speak freely with his attendants and to breathe the outside air. Once shut, the bellows would have to be worked to allow the wearer to breathe fresh air. The fresh air was delivered by a pipe or umbilical to an intake elbow at the back of the helmet. The air then was tracked inside the helmet and over the three visors to prevent their misting. The air was allowed to escape through an exhaust pipe, also at the back of the helmet, which was attached a small flexible pipe.

Among the earliest forerunners of the gas mask was a device invented in 1847 by Lewis P. Haslett of Louisville, Ky. This device employed two one-way clapper valves: one to allow the inhalation of air through a bulb-shaped filter, and the other to vent exhaled air directly into the atmosphere. The filter material — wool or another porous substance moistened with water — was suited to keeping out dust or other solid particulates, but would not have been effective against poisonous gas. Two years later, Haslett's Lung Protector was granted the first U.S. patent for an air-purifying respirator.

In the early 1850s, Scottish chemist John Stenhouse was investigating the power of various forms of charcoal to capture and hold large volumes of gas. He put the science to use in one of the first masks capable of removing toxic gases from incoming air (figure 2). The mask's filter, made of powdered charcoal, was held between two dome-shaped layers of wire gauze covering the wearer's nose and mouth. Although crude by modern standards, the invention was practical and effective enough that certain chemical factories in London equipped their workers with it. Charcoal in its activated form eventually would become the most widely used filter medium for gas masks.

According to an 1874 patent, London's Samuel Barton designed a device for “permitting respiration in places where the atmosphere is charged with noxious gases, or vapors, smoke, or other impurities.” It included a rubber-and-metal face cover, head harness, glass eyepieces, rubber-coated hood, and one-way valves for exhalation and inhalation. A metal canister on the front of the mask contained alternating layers of filtering materials: charcoal, lime and glycerin-soaked cotton wool.

In addition to the canister gas mask, the patent described a simple closed-circuit re-breather in which the user would inhale and exhale through tubes attached to an air reservoir carried on the back. In this alternate configuration, a filter containing lime would remove excess carbon dioxide from the breathing loop.

The late 1800s saw a number of patents for cup-shaped masks like the one shown in figure 3, which was designed by Hutson R. Hurd in 1879 to “prevent the admission of poisonous or noxious gases, or particles of dust or other matter, into the throat and lungs.” Such masks, vaguely resembling pig's snouts when worn, fit over the mouth and nose and were secured to the head with straps. A check valve on the side or top of the casing allowed exhaled air to escape. The H.S. Cover Co., named after its founder, produced cup-type masks for at least two decades after its establishment in 1894. The company was still alive in the 1970s, at which time it was the oldest respirator manufacturer in the United States.

James Braidwood, the superintendent of the London Fire Brigade, invented another type of hose mask at about the same time. To supply air and protect the firefighter from smoke, he connected a tube to an air pump attached to the engine outside the fire building. Firefighters wore a stout leather dress and hood for protection from heat and flames. The hood also had thickly glazed eyeholes. To furnish light, a powerful reflecting lantern was worn on the chest. A shrill whistle was attached to the hood for emergency communications.

Braidwood tested his invention under severe conditions during experimental fires in the vaults of the fire brigade headquarters. The system was used to rescue three small children from a burning house on Fetter Lane. Men so equipped also reportedly saved numerous men and women at other fires.

In 1863, a patent was granted to A. Lacour for his invention, the improved respiring apparatus. This was actually a self-contained breathing apparatus of sorts and consisted of an airtight bag made of two thicknesses of canvas, separated by a lining of India rubber. The device was carried on the fireman's back and held in place by two shoulder straps and a belt around the waist. The bag was filled with pure air and inflated with a pair of bellows. It came in different sizes for air durations of 10 to 30 minutes.

From the upper part of the bag two India rubber tubes were connected to a mouthpiece that was held in place by biting down with the teeth. Corks were placed in the mouthpiece when the bag was being filled through a faucet at the bottom of the bag. The corks were then removed when the wearer was ready to begin breathing the stored air. It came with a pair of goggles to protect the eyes from smoke, a rubber clamp for the nose and an air whistle that could be pressed by hand to signal. Tests made by various fire departments, including New York City, Brooklyn, N.Y., and even the U.S. Navy, proved the device worked to some degree.

In 1891, Bernhard Loeb of Berlin, had been producing and selling respiratory protective equipment through his own company since the 1870s. The apparatus for which Loeb earned several patents in Europe and the United States was designed to “purify foul or vitiated air … rendered foul by smoke, dust or noxious gases and vapors.” A triple-chambered metal canister, carried on the waist, enclosed a filtering system containing liquid chemicals, several layers of granulated charcoal and porous wadding. A flexible hose tube connected the canister to a mouthpiece through which the wearer could breathe the purified air. An alternate configuration had the canister attached directly to a closed helmet surrounding the wearer's head. Users of the equipment in the United States included the Brooklyn (N.Y.) Fire Department.

In 1892, a Denver firefighter named Merriman developed one of the many early variations of the hose mask, and one of the few to be produced in the United States (figure 4). An elephant-trunk-like tube tapped into an air hose that ran parallel to the water hose.

In 1902, Louis Muntz of Winona, Minn., invented a basic gas mask with full head covering. A canister projecting from the front of the mask contained ducts, valves, a sponge prefilter, and a carbon-based adsorbent.

The Siebe-Gorman Co. and chief designers Fleuss and Robert Davis made a large and lasting impact on respirator design. The 1905 face piece and tube shown in figure 5 prefigures the design of some World War I masks. The first of Fleuss' masks, developed in the 1870s, consisted of a mask of rubberized fabric covering the whole face, connected via tubes to a breathing bag and compressed oxygen cylinder. It also included a carbon-dioxide-absorbent chamber that allowed the same air to be breathed a number of times. The equipment proved itself in a series of mine rescue operations in England beginning in 1880.

The Vajen-Bader Co. produced firemen's respiratory equipment since its founding in 1881. The Vajen-Bader Patent Smoke Protector of the 1890s and early 1900s sealed off the wearer's head from the environment and supplied breathable air from a compressed-air cylinder on the back of the helmet.

The Dräger Co. of Germany devised the apparatus pictured in figure 6 in 1903. It operated similar to the Siebe-Gorman self-contained devices. Dräger breathing devices and other safety equipment grew so popular in the mine rescue business that the word “draegerman” eventually became a synonym for an underground rescue worker. The company claims to have manufactured 2 million protective masks for the German Armed Forces during World War I.

One of the most common misconceptions about the origins of the smoke mask is that it began with a device invented by Garrett A. Morgan. Morgan was an inventor and businessman from Cleveland who invented a device called the Morgan safety hood and smoke protector in 1914. The Morgan gas mask was later refined for use by U.S. Army during World War I. In 1914, Morgan was awarded a patent for a Safety Hood and Smoke Protector. Two years later, a refined model of his early gas mask won a gold medal at the International Exposition of Sanitation and Safety, and another gold medal from the International Association of Fire Chiefs.

But it really gained notoriety on July 25, 1916. Morgan made national news for using his gas mask to rescue 32 men trapped during an explosion in a tunnel 250 feet beneath Lake Erie. Morgan and a team of volunteers donned the new masks and went to the rescue. After the rescue, Morgan's company received purchase requests from fire departments around the country.

In fact, Morgan's invention was less like a modern mask than many others that preceded it. It consisted of a hood attached to a long, bifurcated breathing tube that hung almost to the ground allowing the wearer to draw breath from the lower, cleaner layers of air beneath the rising smoke.

To further protect the wearer against smoke, Morgan lined the inner surface of the far end of the tube with a layer of sponge. When soaked with water, the spongy lining acted like a nasal mucous membrane, serving to moisten the air and to trap soot or smoke particles before they could be inhaled.

While the sponge offered some extra protection against solid particulates, the hood's defense against gases relied exclusively on the inlet of the inhaling tube being physically positioned away from the gas itself. To avoid inhaling lighter-than-air gases such as ammonia that concentrate near the ceiling, the wearer would let the breathing tube hang to the floor. For situations involving heavier-than-air gases, Morgan said, “the mouth of the tube can be elevated above the level of the gas.” Perhaps a more appropriate designation for his apparatus would be a “smoke snorkel,” rather than a true smoke mask.

What proved to be one of the most interesting side-notes of this research was that the smoke mask of 1873 devised by Charles and John Deane never made a commercially successful campaign. Instead the design was modified to become the precursor to the modern Mark V diving helmet used by the U.S. Navy today.

With new, more technologically advanced versions of SCBA rolling out this summer, it is interesting to look back to see how it all began and just how far its come.

---

Michael Wallace is assistant fire chief for Seminole (Fla.) Fire and Rescue. He has 25 years in the fire services and holds a bachelor's degree in management and is pursuing a master's degree in public administration. He served as director of education and research and quality assurance analyst for Pinellas County EMS.

NFPA Revamps SCBA Rules

Once every five years, the National Fire Protection Association updates its standards. The 2007 version of NFPA 1981, Standard on Open-Circuit Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus for Emergency Services, is a complete revision.

NFPA first introduced a respiratory standard in 1971 with NFPA 19B. That standard was drafted to prohibit filter-type canister masks and require SCBA. A major change came in 1997 when surrogate cylinders replaced the breathing-gas cylinders to improve safety. In 2002, the standard was amend to require heads-up display that provided a visual information and warning to SCBA wearers regarding the amount of remaining air supply. That year also saw SCBA go to universal air connection in the same spot.

But this year there are several major changes to SCBA, the most significant is the addition of chemical, biological agents and radiological particulates protection, or CBRN. These protection levels came from research conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The NIOSH testing included 151 toxic industrial chemicals. Although urban firefighters are the most likely to encounter CBRNs through terrorist attacks or industrial emergencies, many rural or outlying departments could be called for aid on such a large-scale disaster.

Other changes to NFPA 1981 include new breathing-air cylinder retention requirement within the mounted position, increased mechanical voice diaphragm to 80% at 4.9 feet, and voice communications system with 85% at 10 feet.

The standard also requires SCBAs have an independent pressure gauge not affected by a heads-up display failure, electronic components that can function properly after six exposures to 350°F for 15 minutes and water submersions down to 4.9 feet, and power capacities that will function two hours after the low-power warning.
Source: NFPA