Types of gas masks and the history of their creation

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

In 1915, human practice was replenished with a new terrible episode: the army of one of the warring parties used weapons of mass destruction for the first time. Near the city of Ypres, the Germans sent jets of chlorine to the positions of the French troops - and thousands of soldiers died in a short time.

The fact that this crime will not go unpunished became clear very soon, and the retaliatory gas attack was not long in coming. However, soon the scientists of the Entente countries and the states allied with Austria-Hungary realized the obvious fact: it is much easier to poison people than to save, and even more so to cure.

Russia was not the initiator of the use of OV, but it was in our country that the gas mask was invented. Like a true scientist, Nikolai Zelinsky tested the device on himself, he spent several minutes in a room filled with a mixture of chlorine and phosgene (the most common military poisons of the time), and came out unscathed.

Types of gas masks during the First World War did not differ in variety. All of them were replicas of Zelinsky's invention and differed only in the shape of the mask, country of origin and name. Reliable protectionwas provided if there was no delay in putting on, and the rubber and metal box were not damaged.

The twenties and almost all of the thirties of the XX century passed in anticipation of a new world massacre. In the USSR, regular civil defense exercises were held in order to train not only the soldiers of the Red Army, but also workers of industrial enterprises, as well as the civilian population. New types of filtering gas masks appeared, they were intended for adults, children, horses (the main draft force and the basis of cavalry) and even dogs, whose role in the upcoming war was not yet clear.

Throughout World War II, German soldiers regularly carried cylindrical corrugated cases with gas masks, but they were never needed, Germany was defeated without poisonous substances. The Nazis also did not dare to use them, guessing that their opponents had considerable stocks of them.

But after the victory, a new war began, a cold one, and in its course such poisons appeared, against which the filters were powerless. OM molecules (most often binary, that is, becoming lethal after the fusion of two relatively harmless components) became smaller, activated carbon let them through. In response, new types of gas masks were invented, mainly insulating. The latter are practically an element of a space or underwater suit with a source of oxygen and complete sealing of the internal space.

But not only military threats stimulated the development of means of individualprotection. The 20th century was the era of large-scale man-made threats. Work at hazardous enterprises in the rapidly developing chemical industry, radioactive production and nuclear reactors required qualitatively new measures to ensure safety. Types of gas masks have appeared that cannot be used on the battlefield, but are quite effective in peaceful conditions.

For example, a worker cleaning or repairing a container that cannot be breathed in wears a mask equipped with a long hose that is supplied with clean air.

In other cases, depending on the nature of the pollution, you can use ordinary respirators that protect against dust dispersions. In essence, this is also, albeit very simplified and cheaper, but gas masks. The types and purpose of protective equipment have become more diverse, and the universal devices used by the military are too expensive to be produced for civilian purposes.

Distinguishing types of gas masks by external outlines is easy. Unlike filter boxes, which have relatively small replaceable boxes attached either directly to the mask or connected to it with a corrugated hose, the insulating one is equipped with a rather capacious reservoir of compressed oxygen. The use of the latter requires serious preparation, the design is complicated by a gearbox with a valve and a cylinder with a carbon dioxide absorber. In addition, it is pointless to use an insulating gas mask without the protection of the whole body, which is provided by an airtight suit made of special rubber. Modern poisons also penetrate the skin.