The
Jeffreys' Mask
The
Thermal Buffer Mask. This is a product that warms the air to allow the
wearer breathe pre-heated air. The simple but ingenious principle
employed requires no energy input other than the heat recovered from
the wearer's breath.
Quoted from The
Lung Foundation's Website:-
An aid which allows the wearer to breathe air which is at an acceptable
temperature. The idea appears to have come from a device invented by
Robert Stirling, the hot air or Stirling Cycle Engine.
An
interesting variation of the regenerative principle was developed by
Julius Jeffreys (1801-1877) who
had studied medicine in Edinburgh and London. In 1836 in order to give
relief to his widowed sister who was suffering from a pulmonary attack
he devised the Respirator. The appliance consisted
of a series of exceedingly thin perforated diaphragms - rods, wires or
tubes were afterwards to answer equally well - fixed in a suitable
frame and applied over the mouth. The heat of the breath in passing out
through the plates was taken up to be returned to the air inhaled. The
respirator was apparently well received by the medical profession.
Jeffreys was granted a patent in 1836 (No. 10,287) for Curing
or relieving disorders of the lungs. Further improvements
were patented in 1844 (No. 10,287) and in 1850 (No. 12,984)
Julius
Jeffreys MD. FRS. (1801 - 1877)
English Patent No. (10,287) Curing or relieving disorders of the lungs.
Improvements (10,287 in 1844 and 12,984 in 1850)
The Lung Foundation
A product,
the "James Pneumatikon" appears in a catalogue of surgical instruments
circa 1890, it is described as containing all the scientific principles
of the original respirator of Julius Jeffrys. Other products included
the "Parisian Cork Respirator", and the Colliers New Aluminium
Respirator,
Other
similar products were on offer in the second half of the 19th century,
perhaps the "Rolls Royce" of these respirators was the Bourne Taylor's
Manifold Respirator
(http://phisick.com/item/bourne-taylors-manifold-respirator/) which had
up to three perforated, gold plated plates and silk cushioned surrounds.
The
wearers in Victorian London probably benefited from the filtering
effect.
http://archive.org/stream/catalogueofsurgi00down#page/102/mode/2up/search/respirator
Today the 3M corporation has a
product which works on the same principle:- Their website sells an "Air
Warming Mask" - For cold weather; warms and moistens inhaled air.
The idea of the thermal store
'respirator' seems to have originated from the Robert Stirling idea of
incorporating a bundle of wire between the hot and cold volumes in the
hot air engine named after him. This he named the 'regenerator' and it
is well described described in his Stirling engine patent of 1816
Julius Jeffreys, The British Army
in India: Its Preservation by an Appropriate Clothing, Housing,
Locating, Recreative Employment, and Hopeful Encouragement of the Troops
(London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longman and Roberts, 1858)