US1364104A - Gas-mask - Google Patents

Description

W. C. GEER.

GAS MASK.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 23, 1919.

Patented Jan. 4, 1921.

William 6. Gear ymw filly.

u UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ILLIAM QI'GEER, or AKRoN, 01110, ASSIGNOB r0 THE B. F. GOODRICH COMPANY,

OF NEW YoRK, N; Y., a CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

ayof Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Gas-Masks, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to respirator masks for protecting the wearerls eyes and breathing organs against fumes, gases, smoke and other contaminations of the atmosphere, and

'its general objects are to improve the sealing properties of the mask around the edges thereof, to provide a better mode of ventilating the eye-pieces, to minimize the amount of dead air space, reduce the weight and cost and increase the comfort of wearing the mask.

. Of the accompanying drawings,

Figure 1 is a sideelevation, partly broken away, showing a preferred form of my improved mask. 1

' Fig. 2 is a rear elevation thereof with the head-covering portion partly laid open at the bac'k. Fig. 3 is-a section on the line 3'.-3 of Fig. 2.

' Fig. 1 is a section on the line 1- 1 of Fig. 2; i

Inthe drawings, 10 is a face cover made pf any'SuitabIe imperviousyfiexible material such as sheet rubber molded and vulcanized on a form and preferably having the usual outer covering of stockinet indicated by the shading in Fig. 1-. 11, 11 are thetransparent eye-pieces or windows therein, and 12 is an opening in front of the wearers mouth leading to the atmosphere through asuitable check-valveor exhaling valve 13 -inclosed in a metal caslng 14. A common, practice here-.

tofore has been to provide a cast metal fitting formed with both an air inlet and an air outlet, said inlet branching upwardly through a pair of flexible or other clarifying tubes to .the spaces back of the eye-pieces, so that the air which isbreathed in through the filter by way of the air-inlet passage will avoid or remove the condensation of GAS-MASK.

Specification of Letters Patent. 1

C. GEEK, .a

I Patented Jan. 4, 1921. Application filed January 23, 1919. Serial No. 272,618

of the air outlet structure and making a joint with the face covering at a point closely adjacent to and preferably between and slightly above the middle of the eyepieces, from which point it may lead in an anterior direction to one side of the face covering (to which side it may also be attached) .where it is adapted for connection with a pipe leading over the wearers shoulder to a filter strapped on his back, but this upward, lateral, rearwardly-leading disposition of the anterior part of the inlet pipe, as well as other details, may be varied or omitted. The anterior section of the air inlet pipe having this construction and ar- "tion as being a well-known feature. It will be observed that a flexible pipe having this disposition allows the mask to be worn with increased comfort, provldes a lighter, more compact and less expensive construction than heretofore, and permitsa reduction in the size of the dead air space within the mask, since the interior portion of the a r passage may be reduced to a minimum. This interior portion 1s formed by the part of the face cover 10 between and above the eye-pieces 11 as its front wall, while its rear wall is constituted by aflexible piece 17 of sheet material such as 'soft rubber having its edges secured to the face cover except along two arcs of the eye-pieces 11, where apair of slit-like openings 18 impinge upon the rear surfaces of the glasses, th se openings forming the clarifying or anti-fogging air inlets to the interior of the mask. 'The joint between the face cover 10 and thefiexible pipe 15-is preferably a flexible, cemented and vulcanized joint formed around the mouth of said pipe.

The upper margin 19 of the face cover 10 embracing the wearers forehead serves toseal the. breathing space of the mask at the upper end thereof, and the rest of said space is sealed by the rear margin 20 of said face cover, passing down along the cheeks in.

front of the ears and under the-chin. Formerly the straps or harness attached to these margins, and the construction of the margins themselves, especially at the cheeks and temples, has been such that these margins as a. whole would not effectively sealthe breathing space, owing largely to the nonconforming character of the margins in relation to the usual flat or hollow portions of the face, and the tendency to produce buckling of some portion or portions of,./said marglns owing to the direction of pull of the head'straps.

' For improving the sealing, I have shown two expedients which may advantageously be used cooperatively in combination as shown, although either may be employed separatelv without departing from the scope 1 of my invention.

'ginal member of the ordinary construction,

even though such member may be thickened or beaded. To produce such perpendicular inward pressure as the resultant of longitudinal pull exerted on the marginal portion or portions of the mask I provide/suitabl e pads 21- located principally in the rear marginal portion 20 but also partly in themargin 19- in theregions of the temples.

These pads may be'of'any suitable construction, but are preferably hollow as shown,

. their inner walls being convexly molded in also preferably longest? in a the main rubber'member of the mask and covered with substantially flush vulcanized, soft-rubber straight pull on the margins. The pads are vertical direction as indicated.

The other sealing expedient consists in I theus'e of a pair of elastic, flexible, harness straps such as 23, 24 which pass respectively I over the top and around the back. of the wearers head from opposite points on the mask in the region ofthe temples, and hence exert their pull uponthe rear'and upper edges of the face cover--10 in directions substantially at rightangles. there is no resultant longitudinal force on pieces '22 for transmitting the substantially Consequently either margin 19 or 20 tending to causeibuc I kling ofsaid margin, and the scaling is improved. These straps act both individually and cooperatively upon said margins and "the pads 21 to produce the describedperpendicular sealin'g' pressure of said pads against the hollows of the face. A third stabilizing andfweight-sustaining strap 25 is preferably provided, passing from front to rear over the wearers head to connect the middle portionsof the forehead-embracing margin 19 and of the straps 23, 24, all these members being permissibly made of soft vulcanized rubber in one piece with the main member of the face cover. The open spaces may be sultably filled m, as with stockinet 26, so that the entire top structure forms a hat, and in order thatsome adjustment may be made .for size, I- prefer to divide the rearportions of the "straps 21 and 25111 a median vertical plane and provide eyelets 27 and a lacing 28 to connect the divided edges.

I claim: I 1. A gas mask comprising an impervious face cover. having a top flexible margin adapted to embrace the 'wearers forehead anda rear flexible margin adapted to embrace the cheeks and chm, a strap connecting the temporal portions of said i face cover around the back of the head and adapted to exert a longitudinal pull on the first men;

tioned margin, and another strap connecting .said' temporal portions over the top of the head and adapted to. exert-a longitudinal pull on the second mentioned margin and a,

pair of inwardly convex sealing pads incorporated-in .said margins in the region ofthe temples. the inner surfaces of said pads being integral with the: inner surface of said face cover;

2 A gas mask comprising a face cover having a flexible top, forehead embracing margin and 'a flexible rear face embracing margin substantially at right angles thereto, head straps lying approximately in extension of said margins; a pair of inwardly convex sealing pads incorporated in said margins at the temples, and a flexible, external K erally across the temple and'forehead ofsaid air inlet pipe extending forwardly and latface cover and attached thereto. I

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 20 da of J anuar 1919. 1 I ILLIAM GEER.

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