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 )

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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 .

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( 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 )

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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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