|
Through the Smoke!
An article written for the Fire Museum
Network's web site by David Lewis, March 1,
1999
If this article is to be reproduced please credit
the Fire Museum Network AND the original
source.
Where there is smoke there's fire.
Conversely, where there is fire there's smoke. We
all know fire is not the primary killer - it is the
deadly smoke.
Firefighters are given two basic approached to
overcoming smoke - filtering the smoke out of the
air, or bringing fresh air with them into the
fire.
Legend has it that mustaches on firefighters of the
mid 1800s were more than just a common hair style -
they were a personal protective device! Firemen
were reported to wet their mustaches, curl up their
lower lip, and breath air through the impromptu
filter system. Unfortunately there is no recorded
evidence of exactly how well this practice
worked.
Ad from The National Fireman's Journal
1878
Several devices were patented in the 1860s and
1870s. Lacour's "Improved Respiring Apparatus"
consisted of an air tight bag made of two
thicknesses of canvass, lined with India rubber.
Carried on the back, this bag was filled with pure
air inflated with a pair of bellows. Another device
filled not an bag won on the fireman's back - but
rather inflated special pockets in a fire-proof
jacket, (making the firefighter look like he is a
giant marshmallow man). Nealy's "Smoke Excluding
Mask", looking like a close relative of Darth
Vader's mask, filtered smoky air through moist
sponges and a water bag worn around the
firefighter's chest.
Illustration of Nealy's "Smoke Excluding
Mask" from
The National Fireman's Journal December 8,
1877
The 1890s saw the development of one of the most
successful and common "smoke masks" -- the
Vajen-Bader. I will let the following articles
finish telling the story....
A SMOKE HELMET SAVES A
HUMAN LIFE
Reprinted
from the Fireman's Herald
March 25, 1897
|
|
|
With the aid of a Vajen-Bader patent
smoke protector Fireman " Billy" West, of
truck 1, saved the life of Mrs. H.
Roberts, who was overcome by smoke on the
afternoon of March 11 in a burning house
at 7I3-717 Central street, Kansas City,
Mo.
The fire, which started at 4:30 o'clock
from a cigar stump thrown into a light
shaft by a careless boarder, bad spread to
the second and third stories of the
building before the Fire Department were
called. Soon after the firemen began
pouring water on the building, Mrs.
Roberts opened the window of her room on
the second story on Central Street. She
was choking with smoke and prepared to
jump to the sidewalk below. Fireman West
cried to her to wait until he could carry
her out. Then he pulled a Vajen-Bader
helmet over his head and ran up the
stairway to the second floor. The smoke
was so dense that be could only feel his
way along the halls. When he neared the
door of Mrs. Roberts's room he stumbled
over her body, which lay across the hall.
She had started for the stairway, had
succumbed under the effects of the smoke
and had fallen senseless to the floor.
Fireman West carried her down the stairway
into the Street, where, in the fresh air,
she soon recovered from the effects of the
smoke. The second and third stories of the
house were gutted by the fire. Upon
reaching the street with Mrs. Roberts,
Fireman West was greeted with cheers by
the immense crowd that had assembled to
witness the fire.
|
A SUCCESSFUL
INVENTOR
Reprinted from the Fireman's
Herald September 9,
1897
|
|
We present herewith a picture of Mr.
Willis C. Vajen, of Indianapolis, Ind. the
successful inventor of the Vajen smoke
protector. As we have mentioned before, no
test of a fire appliance attracted as much
attention at the Chiefs' convention in New
Haven as the test of the Vajen-Bader smoke
helmet. There are very few departments of
prominence in this country where the
helmet is not in use, and the fire
departments of Dublin, Guttenberg, Sweden;
Valpariso, Chili; Saporo, Japan; and
Wellington, New Zealand, are using them
with entire satisfaction.
The helmet is made of a chamois leather
specially prepared so that fire and water
are equally without injurious effect upon
it, and is heavily padded about the lower
part with fleece, through which the
exhaled air works out gradually, acting as
a pressure stop against the entrance of
outside air. The air for respiration is
furnished from a compact compression tank
attached to the back of the helmet, and is
fed at atmospheric pressure. The
temperature secured by the escape of the
air from its confined to normal pressure
is always at least twenty degrees lower
than the temperature of the surrounding
atmosphere. The eye pieces are of mica,
giving clear sight, and diaphragms of the
same at the ear holes transmit sound
perfectly and at the same time serve for
side lights when occasion presents, as the
head is perfectly free to turn about
inside the helmet.
Mr. Willis C. Vajen, the inventor, has
taken ten years to perfect the device, and
has now been making it for sale something
over a year. His success in the production
is properly a source of much
gratification. Mr. Vajen is evidently
possessed of a good deal of natural
ingenuity. In explaining the discovery
that it was possible to make a mica
diaphragm transmit vocal sounds to the ear
recently, he happened to mention the fact
that in 1876 he first used mica in a, sort
of crude transmitter to what has since
been called a telephone between his front
and back office in his hardware store at
Indianapolis. That was before the date of
the introduction of the diaphragm
transmitter now regularly applied to use
in the telephone, phonograph and similar
instruments.
|
|
|
• Return
to Random Sparks •
|
