Respiration apparatus for use in coal-mines and other places.

Application filed April 10, 1908. Serial No, 426,190.

To all whom it may concern:

^Be it known that I, William Edward Garforth, a subject of the King of Great: Britain, residing at Normanton, Yorkshire, 5 England/ have invented a certain new and useful Improved Respiration Apparatus for Use in Coal-Mines and other Places, and of which the following is a specification..

This invention relates to respiration ap10 paratus for use in coal mines and other places, the apparatus dealt with being of that known ty^o in which the wearer has a tightly fitting face-piece covering the mouth and nose; from the interior of this face15 piece the expired or used air is conducted to a regenerator case, which contains caustic alkali, and from thence the purified nitrogen is conducted to a storage bag, and from this storage bag it is admitted to the face20 piece for re-use by the wearer. There is also in this known respiration apparatus, a supply of oxygen, stored in a cylinder or cylinders, and a supply of this oxygen, is also conducted to the said face-piece.

. Now the.object of the present invention is to provide improved means by which those parts, of the apparatus which the wearer has. to carry upon his body—and some of which are of considerable weight— 30 shall be so . arranged , as to cause the leastpossible fatigue and inconvenience, as well as to impede as little as possible the wearer’s movements, and at the same time to so provide that the wearer will always, each time 35 the apparatus is applied, have all the· parts that he carries on his body exactly in. those positions in which he has been accustomed or practiced to carry them.

. According therefore to the present inven40 tion, 1 employ a flexible jacket of any suitable, material such as leather, which besides serving the ordinary purposes of such a garment, acts as a foundation upon which the • various parts of the apparatus-are and re45 main arranged and fixed, and with which the storage bag for the purified nitrogen is constructed. The jacket is provided with means by which the regenerator case is fixed to the back, and two oxygen storage cyl in 50 ders are employed which are connected by a pipe, and these storage cylinders each being of some considerable weight, -are arranged one upon each side 'about the hips, while the storage bag for nitrogen is composed, as 55 usual, of a flexible indiarubber case but is permanently fixed in the rear of the jacket, and the various pipes which proceed from the face-piece to the parts of the apparatus carried upon the jacket are capable of being detached from those latter parts, so that 60 with very great rapidity the wearer can put on the jacket .with all the parts conveniently arranged, and then the pipes to the facepiece can be connected up.

The invention is described in detail with 65 reference to the example of construction shown on the accompanying drawings, whereon is illustrated a respiration apparatus of the type first stated in this specification, but constructed with certain im- 70 prOyements which are described in the specifications of patent aplications by myself of even date herewith. It is to be understood, however, that the present invention does not deal with any particular and specific con- 75 struction of the before-stated type of respiration apparatus, but it does deal with the particular arrangement, disposition and mode of fixture of certain parts of such apparatus, viz., to the formation of the oxygen 80 cylinders so that they can be carried upon each side of the person about the hips, and to the guard wings on the regenerator case, to the location of the storage bag, and to the fixture of all these parts upon a jacket, 85 so that when a person has applied this jacket, he has then all these parts arranged in their proper positions. Hence, it is clear that any known form of respiration apparatus of this type can be equally well ar- 90 ranged to be applied and be constructed according, to the present invention.

. In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a left-hand side elevation showing the parts of the apparatus assembled in position. 95 Fig. 2 is a front view of the apparatus shown in Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a rear view of the apparatus shown in .Figs. 1 and 2.

Referring to the drawings, the head-gear is similar to that described in the specifica- 100 tions of my patent applications of even date, and consists of a face-piece 1 which communicates with two passages in a double tube 2 passing over the head-cap 3, the tube 2 being forked at its rear end and one of its 105 branches connected by a detachable joint 39 with a flexible pipe 4; the pipe 4 communicates with the regenerating case 6 to take the used air to said case, while two flexible pipes 7,. connected to said case by detachable 110 joints, convey the purified nitrogen to a storage bag 8, and from thence a flexible

911,389 pipe 5 is connected by a detachable joint 40 . to the second branch of the pipe 2. The oxygen storage cylinders 10 are connected to the face-piece to admit thereto the neces5 sary supply of oxygen.

All the parts of this apparatus, excepting the head-gear, are fixed to the jacket 9. To effect this in the advantageous manner before stated, the two oxygen cylinders 10 ate 10 each curved to approximately agree with the contour of the body and are fixed upon each side of the jacket by straps 35 about the hips of the wearer. The storage bag 8 is, as aforesaid, constructed of indiarubber and is 15 fixed permanently on tlie interior of ihe jacket 9 at the rear part of same. The regenerator 6 is held to the back of tlie jacket by being strapped to a frame 15 which is permanently fixed to the said j acket, and the 20 top of the regenerator case C is formed with two curved wings 36, Figs. 1 and 3, which extend to the shoulders of the wearer and so prevent the upper part of the case of the regenerator catching or being retained by.ob25 stael'es with which it may be brought into contact.

The oxygen cylinders 10 are connected together by a pipe 11, which is fitted with a pressure gage 37 in such position that the 30 wearer can easily observe its indications.

is a reducing valve communicating by a pipe 13 with a branch of the pipe 11 connecting the cylinders 10, and oxygen passes by a flexible pipe 14, which is connected by 35 a'detachable joint at its upper end to a pipe 51 extending from the face-piece.

It will now be observed that by detaching the upper ends of the flexible pipes 4 and 5 by means of the detachable joints 39 and 40, 40 from the head-gear, and by detaching the pipe 14 from the pipe 51, the jacket, together with all its attached fittings, can be separated from the head-gear, and when suddenly required for use, can again be applied 45 along with all its fittings, and those fittings will be found to be in those positions in which the wearer lias been or should have become so well accustomed to.

The arrangement of the parts upon tlie 50 jacket has been the result of much study and experiment, and as the outcome 1 have found that the weight of the oxygen storage cylinders can be supported in the positions described with the greatest ease by the wearer, 55 and that the location of the nitrogen storage bag is such, that its necessary presence creates no inconvenience to the wearer and does not hinder him in the arduous duties he may have to perform in rescue of persons in 60 mining disasters, while the flexible pipes connecting the various parts being located at the rear, are less liable to injury and disarrangement than heretofore.

The oxygen supply to the face-piece is car65 ried out, in the example shown, by means of a suction-operated reducing valve operated by reduction of pressure in the face-piece due to the action of the wearer s lungs and described in the specifications of my patent applications of even date, but obviously the 70 present invention can be equally well adapted to that known type of respiration apparatus, in which the oxygen is. supplied by a hand-governed valve to an injector apparatus, by which an air current is maintained 7 5 throughout the apparatus.