The gas masquerade has a history that dates back thousands of age , though it was n’t until World War I that it became nightmare fresh fish for Doctor Who and countless other story . Here is a sometimes terrifying history of the gas mask , from its beginning through the present day .
Playing leapfrog, 1934
Above . capable seamen at the Royal Navy Anti - Gas School at Tipnor , Portsmouth run leapfrog wearing gas mask , to habituate them to carrying out strenuous tasks in respirator , on January 22 1934 .
( picture by William Vanderson / Fox Photos / Getty Images )
The common sponge, ancient Greece
Accordingto the Popular Mechanics(January 1984 ):
“ The common leech was used in ancient Greece as a gasoline mask , a compress , a contraceptive – and , of course of study , for bath . ”
( viaWikimedia Commons / Tom Oates )

Banū Mūsā Gas Mask, c. 850 A.D
This gas mask was designed by the Banu Musa chum in Baghdad , Iraq to protect proletarian working in contaminated wells . The twist was mentioned in the brothers book “ Book of Ingenious Devices ” that describes 100 inventions .
( Illustrations are from the brothers ’ book , but not about the natural gas mask , via Wikimedia Commons1–2 )
Plague Doctor’s Mask
The hiss - like nib mask was often filled with odorous or potent reek herbs or spicery – lavender , mint , camphor or dry out roses . They ’ve believed it would ostracise the evil smell .
( viaWikimedia Commons / Traité de la peste , 1721andetsy / Tom Banwell )
Alexander von Humboldt’s mask, 1799
It was the first equipment with gasmask , make up for miners by a Prussian excavation official Alexander von Humboldt .
( viaAsher Rare Books )
A smoke protecting apparatus for firemen by John and Charles Deane, 1823
In the former 1820s John Deane have seen a burning stable with trapped horses in it . To get through the smoking and rescue all the horses he put on an sometime knight - in - armour helmet melodic phrase - pump by a hosiery from a ardour brigade body of water ticker . The saving was successful , and in 1823 John and Charles Deane have invented the Smoke Helmet :
“ An setup or machine to be wear out by mortal recruit rooms or other places occupy with green goddess or other vaporization , for the purpose of extinguishing flak or extricating somebody or property therein . ”
The twist was a unmarried copper helmet with a retentive leather hose confiscate to the rear . A long leather hosepipe was attach to the rear . Five years afterward it was converted for submerged habit .

( viaSubmerged )
Lewis Haslett: “Inhaler or Lung Protector”, 1847, patented in 1849
It grant breathing through a olfactory organ or gumshield conform to with two one - mode tongue walves . The filter was made of wool or other porous heart and soul with water could keeping out dust .
( viaGoogle Patent Search )
The charcoal air-filter of John Stenhouse, 1854 (patented in 1860 and 1867)
In the copper color - framed masquerade there was powdered Ellen Price Wood charcoal between the two hemispheres . The oxford gray could be supercede through a modest door in the wire gauze .
( viaWikimedia Commons )
John Tyndall’s respirator, 1871
The Irish physicist take Stenhouse ’s masquerade and added a filter of cotton wool impregnate with charcoal , linden tree and glycerol . The new machine has filtered smoke and some noxious petrol from melodic line .
( viaWikimedia Commonsandsteampunksp )
Samuel Barton’s respirators, 1874
This respirator had rubber - and - metal grimace cover , glass eyepieces , safe - coated exhaust hood and a alloy canister on the front of the mask contained calcium hydrate , glycerol - soaked cotton wool and charcoal gray .
( viaGoogle Patent Search/148868 )
Smoke-Excluding Mask, George Neally, 1877 and 1879
The first translation had a filter carry on the chest , but two days subsequently he patented another version with the filter jump on directly on the facepiece .
( viaGoogle Patent Search – 1and2 )
Fleuss Apparatus, 1878
The rubberized masquerade party incubate the whole face was connected via tubes to a external respiration bag .
( viaHistory of Diving Museum )
Vajen-Bader Smoke Protector
The Indianapolis - based company produced smoke protectors from 1881 .
( viaFire Museum web )
Loeb’s Respirator, 1891
The German Bernhard Loeb ’s protective equipment had a treble - chambered metal canister that was attached immediately to the unsympathetic helmet .
( viaGoogle Patent Search/533854 )
Muntz Respirator, 1902
The right duckface from the first years of the 20th hundred is a full headway - covering mask with a sponge- and a carbon paper - based filter .
( viaGoogle Patent Search/703948 )
Safety Hood and Smoke Protector, Garret A. Morgan, 1912, patented in 1914.
This equipment had a cotton fiber hood with two hose which flow down the floor , allowing the wearer to breath the air observe there .
In 1916 he won an acclaim for his twist after they ’ve used the equipment to deliver some mankind from the gas- and smoke - filled tunnels beneath Lake Erie in the Cleveland Waterworks .
The British Army Black Veil Respirator
After the first gasoline attack ever near Ypres in Belgium ( 4 February 2025 ) , some Allies were beat because of the chlorine gas . The British response was really straightaway : they ’ve made some inhalator from cotton backtalk pad with a long fabric . The pads provided no protection when dry , so the Black Veil could operate for about five minute against a normal compactness of chlorine .
( viaAustralian War Memorial )
A German soldier from the WWI
( viaOld Photos )
Hypo helmet or British Smoke Hood, 1915
Constructed by Dr. Cluny MacPherson of Royal Newfoundland Regiment after he saw a German put a bag over his head after a gas approach .
The Hypo helmet contained glycerin and sodium thiosulphate that protected against chlorine . Two and a one-half million had been made .
( viaGunboardsandWikimedia Commons / Imperial War Museums )

GM-15 (Gummimaske-15) from Germany, WWI
( viaGasmasklexikon , Wikimedia Commons / German Federal Archive )
Three workers demonstrating the different types of gas masks used in mine rescue work, 1925
( Photo by Fox Photos / Getty Images )
Dustbowl masks, c. 1935
Three girls modelling various dustbowl masks to be worn in area where the amount of rubble in the strain causes breathing difficulties , circa 1935 .
( exposure by Bert Garai / Keystone / Hulton Archive / Getty Images )
Finnish civilian gas mask from 1939
Gas Protection, 1941
Three air raid warden don a Modern type of gas mask , designed for the older and those with chest complaints , during a mock gas attack in which tear gas was released in Esher High Street on fifth April 1941 .
( Photo by A. Hudson / Topical Press Agency / Getty Images )
Mickey Mouse Gas Mask, 1942
Thes gasolene masks were produced by the Sun Rubber Products Company from other 1942 , with Walt Disney ’s approval to protect children in instance of an American chemical attack .
( viacolordonorandterrapapers )
Gas Mask Wedding on Miyakejima, Izu Islands, Japan
The land is atop an active volcanic range of mountains that has erupted six times in the twentieth Century . In 2000 , all of the island residents were evacuate , but in 2005 they were allowed to return permanently but were want to expect gas masks .
( viaimgur )
Slicing onions
( viaemorfes )
A Member Of The U.S. Air Force 51St Security Forces Squadron Talks On The Radio Through His Chemical/Biological Protective Mask, 5 December 2024
( Photo By Usaf / Getty Images )
( The principal picture of the post is from 1917 , Hulton Archive / Getty Images )
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