What prompted the invention of a mask that could provide clean air in polluted and poisonous environments?
In fresh air with low pollution levels, our bodies perform the subconscious act of breathing. You inhale and exhale air continuously to stay alive, absorbing oxygen in the lungs for use in biochemical reactions around the body. The atmosphere contains around 21 per cent oxygen, but this level only has to drop below 19.5 per cent to become unhealthy. Oxygen levels between 16 and 19.5 per cent cause tissues to stop functioning properly under exertion, and between 12 and 16 per cent your ability to think clearly stops, even when resting. When the air becomes unbreathable and contaminated with pollutants, gas masks are life-saving. These situations can include large-scale fires that suck up oxygen and release smoke, chemical spills from industrial buildings or emergency situations when people are trapped in confined spaces with inadequate ventilation.
Different models of gas masks have been accredited to a handful of inventors, including African American inventor Garrett Morgan, who made an early version of a gas mask. The value of his invention – which many historians believe to be the basis of the US Army’s World War I gas masks – was demonstrated by Morgan himself in a disaster in 1916. In a waterworks tunnel in his hometown of Cleveland, natural gas escaped from a lakebed and caused an explosion. Official rescue teams were unable to enter the tunnel to search for casualties, because they didn’t have any breathing apparatus. Knowing that Morgan was working on gas masks, the rescue team approached him, and he was able to enter the tunnel safely and bring eight survivors to safety. Similar masks are used today for rescue operations in toxic environments, and are standard equipment in the military for soldiers in war zones.
DID YOU KNOW? In World War I, 29 million gas masks were used by French, American, Italian and Belgian forces
BREATHING EASY IN WORLD WAR I
Did you know? The M2 gas mask was used during World War I
UNMASKING THE PAST
1939 TO 1945 More efficient filtration
Gas masks made for use in World War II were more compact than the bulky filter devices of World War I. More porous materials such as chrysotile asbestos were used during World War II, before asbestos was found to be dangerous. This allowed smaller filters to be integrated in the main mask, rather than being connected by a tube.
CIVILIAN USE
The benefit of gas masks in protecting against chemical warfare had been proven in World War I. In World War II Britain, when the threat of a German blitz attack became known, the government gave out gas masks to civilians in an attempt to save as many lives as possible. T
