The British Small Box Respirator of World War One

strong hunter [Music] No my-my-my and quite a difficult thing it is to wear oh just give me one moment here while I dawn from proper headgear that's all yes indeed as I said earlier this video is going to be all about their yeah I think it's on straight is it on straight I don't know I can't really see anything oh well without my glasses but ah yes the ESPE are the small box respirator is well technically one of the most sophisticated gas masks to have come out of the first world war although by looking at it right now it doesn't necessarily seem to be such it is a very simplistic sort of system made up of really only three main parts you have the actual face mask here which my-my-my is rather dirty at the moment but we'll talk about that a bit later on simply you know a sort of canvas bag sort of thing which fits more or less tightly around the face there could be some gaps we'll talk about that later on with - of course I plates there - a little glass plates for the eyes to see through it also has a prong for the nose inside and a simple mouthpiece sort of like a um what's it called a a snorkel of some sort mouthpiece on the inside of course that mouthpiece connects to a very long tube here which in turn leads down into the actual Box in the small box respirator name sorry what's not very good microphone as I'm rummaging around there about yes indeed here at - connects on the very end to a small tin of sorts there a small canister which you can see has a sort of filter or a sort of vent on the bottom there you see you fill this actual canister with things like activated charcoal and all sorts of you know fancy chemicals and whatnot which when the user breathes in through the mouth teeth piece they suck air through the hose from the filter there and as it's being pulled in it is at least theoretically going to be cleaned and taken care of with all of the inside the box and so what you should see erratically be getting through the hose here is nice clean air whenever you exhale on the other hand the air doesn't actually have to go back through the hose and then out of the canister because if you think about it that would sort of cut the actual lifespan of the mask in half and it would also make it a lot more difficult to breathe no indeed whenever you exhale we have this sort of a little rubber bladder looking thing here which if you look at how it's a raid how it's designed it sort of opens up there whenever you exhale the breath is able to shoot through here but whenever you inhale it sort of seals shut and you're not able to breathe anything through this design is a very old one you can see these really going back to some of the earliest gas masks in the First World War it didn't take them but off a lot of times realize that having an exhalation nozzle like that is a really good idea - you know preserve the life of the gas mask and make it easier to breathe for the men you know even you know something very simplistic the very basic the very early war sorts of gas masks which really amounted to little more than will even actually that I should say they weren't even called gas masks they were called pH hoods or pH helmets things like that they were a little more than bags placed over the head they were soaked in chemicals to sort of give at least some sort of cleaning effect to the air and these tow hoods would usually be tucked very tightly inside of the soldier's tunic - I prevent sort of you know other air from seeping in through the bottom but that's beside the point yeah they realized early on that sort of things quite useful so that's not a very new development but the rest of the mask was developed in 1916 very late 1916 became standard issue in 1917 so again very late in the war this is one of the most sophisticated designs that they came up with through the entirety of the affair you know there are some other designs which I think we're a bit more sophisticated where you didn't have to rely on this big great big hose system but the actual filtration unit was of course right in front but again that's even later on yes indeed there are a few interesting notes about the gas masks here alongside the actual construction and how it works the filtration unit on the bottom there the first thing that I noticed when I put this mask on for the first time is just how difficult it really is to actually breathe through it now the thing about this mask the one that I have right now this replica is it doesn't actually work as a gas mask not now at least because this can here is completely empty there's you know sort of like a foam or some sorts I think inside there just to prevent I guess got bugs and whatnot from flying inside and going up the tube or breathing through it that would be rather inconvenient but the actual canister is empty there is no charcoal in here there are no chemicals there's nothing to actually filter the air and yet just trying to pull air through this little mouthpiece through the hose and through the tin here out that tiny little hole it's very very difficult to actually do it's very difficult to breathe through this mask with any amount of you know with any sort of large breath with any sort of rapid rapidity is that a word yes it's difficult to breathe through with any level of rapidity it's very difficult to yet do any sort of physical activity I think we can say I mean just earlier you know even talking I had to immediately afterwards who taking a really deep breath because I was expending so much sort of on the one breath while talking in furnaces while I was talking while my mouth was around the mouthpiece there which you can remove your mouth talk and then put it back on while the mask is still on you and so it does allow the men to you know communicate and issue orders and things like that while wearing the mask but you know it's not terribly efficient and it can be rather difficult to maneuver like that especially if you're busy doing other things if you're in a situation where you know you have to shout out a command very quickly as is understandable given you're in a battlefield it's not exactly the sort of thing that you'll want to try and resort to but yes very difficult to actually breathe through it and can only imagine that if this was actually filled with charcoal and chemicals and things like that to filter the air which already you know having to filter the air you're gonna go I imagine less or or it would be harder to breathe in that air anyways even if it was filtered but even more stuff going through there that would have to go through you would have to inhale very sharply in order to get any air at all this sort of thing and it it makes it very very difficult I mean yeah I was sort of out of breath a little bit even after just initially taking off the mask I'd use the excuse of putting on my cap here to sort of recover myself so I could actually start talking in the video here yeah very difficult to actually breathe through and even it's very difficult to breathe through you know the first night I put it on it was just open and loose like that it wasn't with the duh all right let's do it like this this unit here wasn't even actually in the bag when I first used the gas mask but we'll get a little bit more to the bag here and what its purpose is a little bit later on for now just one other thing that I want to mention that I've noticed about the gas masks which is is rather disgusting I apologize for the for the crudeness of this next bit but um saliva it gets really bad I mean the fact that you have your mouth up against or even around a mouthpiece on the inside of the unit there you know if you've ever used historical for an extended period of time or if you ever used historical wild not like underwater you'll know it very rapidly gets very saliva filled especially if you have a mouth that isn't particularly dry at the moment and the gas mask I mean I yeah I I won't go through the pains of describing it for you but there's a lot of moisture as it were as a result of the spittle which happens just from having your mouth you know wrapped around the thing and trying to breathe through it it gets really really dirty you can't gunked-up really quite quickly especially actually when I when I've worn it for extended periods just to you know see to see what it was like so to say I don't know you know you get a gas mask what he's supposed to do you put it on you play games for an hour that beside the point don't judge me but the actual bag here the actual bladder where your buns exhale also gets really really bad I mean should be told you know you might be able to see a little bit of staining in there on the bottom of the hose I think it was actually from spittle coming out of the bladder bit there it's it's uh there might be a method or a way to avoid having that sort of thing happen maybe just severe dehydration as a soldier out the front might have would really help with that problem but for myself that that has been quite the issue a few other things to talk about as far as the actual mask is concerned and how it works before we move on to the bag here and how it would be used in the field you'll also notice as I mentioned inside not only do you have the actual mouthpiece and the two glass you know i sockets there you have these sort of cloth covered nose pins and that is exactly what it sounds like it's supposed to do when you are wearing the mask those pins pinched over your nose and you know prevent you for breathing anything through the nose it sounds rather silly but the reason for those existing is that you know this mask is it's not terribly tight around the head it's not exactly the most secure and of course in a battlefield environments not only can the thing come loose very easy I'm sure we can imagine but also if there's ever any sort of a tear in the things I imagine could be quite common if there's any sort of problem basically going through with this thing you want to keep a sealed system with your actual breathing so you know if you let's say theoretically the mask comes a little bit loose or you know a bit of shrapnel or something happens to make a little tear in the side of the mask so long as however would despite that get that's a little you know breach and so gases can leak in that way so long as you have your mouth around or you're breathing through the actual mouthpiece there and you keep your nose pinned shot you will not be able to actually breathe in those dangerous chemicals now your eyes may start to water you may have some difficulties there depending on the kind of gas that's being used but you will still be able to breathe that's one of those important things so it's sort of a safety mechanism there that forces the soldier to to breathe through his mouth some consequences of that sort of like little consequences that I never really imagined or thought of before but top if you ever have to swallow you ever try like swallowing with your mouth sort of constricted and you and your nose is plugged at top it's difficult sort of like you feel in the ears it's I can't really describe it but it's um I can just say um I don't know go get a snorkel put this or go to math and then pinch your nose and and then try to swallow it it's difficult to do because you can't really bring in air or something I don't know how it works but swallowing is rather strange when you're actually wearing the mask it's very difficult to do and that coupled with the great amount of saliva that you're dealing with yeah not very enjoyable not very fun to actually wear this thing for extended periods of time even if it does look fantastic what else do we have about to the actual nose pins there well and I suppose that's the only thing they commissioned about the nose pins and the actually inside of the mask was there anything else particular that I've noticed while wearing the thing no I think that's that's more or less the entire thing it's very difficult to actually breathe in so with that now let's talk a little bit more about the entirety of this getup and what I'm wearing here now on the small box respirator uh if I can want expose I just put it back into its place can't I I talked about is not always worn area is not always worn very high up on a chest like this this is a sort of battle ready position this is how the actual gas mask bag would be worn in a location where there is a high risk of gas attacks to fit inside there yep here we are can be rather difficult at times ah there we are I'm still getting use of court used of course to the new kits I'm more used to 18th century still but we're getting there bit by bit I should be able to close that the hose is posing a bit of a problem but yeah in any case for now it works but this very high up on the chest with the straps alongside you know very very much in a central position this is sort of a battle ready position this is if you're in a an area that has a very high risk of a gas attack you want to be able to take off the helmet get that mask on get the helmet back on and be ready to go at a moment's notice and because of that as well you know the fact that you have a very heavy canister on the bottom you don't want it wouldn't be a very good idea to have all the men with their gas masks swinging their head around and then flinging this great big canister about not only can you damage the gas mask but you can hurt your friends either and it's just you know it's heavy it's a nuisance it would make it very difficult to actually move with any level of rapidity and again that's a very bad thing to have in the field having such a restrictive you know weight sort of underneath a person's chin or underneath their face and so the bag here alongside being in a very easily accessible a very ready area for you know if you happen to need to get the mask on very quickly pee right there is very useful but the bag as well is a way to keep hold of the actual canister there so if I pull out the mask and I put this on the actual canister there stays inside the bag and I'll show some footage alongside here of what it looks like on the inside inside the bag there's actually a sort of Coyle which are arrests just on the bottom tour the bag isn't actually sitting at the bottom I'm sorry the the canister is not sitting at the actual base or the bottom of the bag it's sort of being held in place a couple of inches above that top you know by that hollow that metal coil or sort of wrap around of wire as it will you want to keep it open underneath the actual canister of course because if that was not an open space underneath that canister well if this thing is sitting right on the flat bottom against the actual fabric it's not really gonna do you an awful lot of good when the breathing hole is on the bottom of the canister you need to have that suspended by at least at least an inch or two in order to have air flow to where you can still breathe in and actually to facilitate that I was rather surprised to learn that there's a little dividing line which again you'll see over here there's a dividing line inside the bag to have one half for the canister to sit very snugly very securely so it's not slow you know sloshing around inside the bag at all but then underneath that dividing sort of line of fabric there is actually a gap in opening so that way when the gas mask is seated on the bottom with that you know that intro to of space underneath it not only is air able to flow freely at the bottom of the actual bag but it's able to be pulled in from the other side from sort of like this entrance it's able to be pulled down through and then into the actual gas mask so again we are just adding layers of complexity more difficulty in breathing because of the amount of travel time so to say that the air has but it allows for that open air flow it allows you to actually get at the air which if this gas mask was just simply you know sitting idly at the bottom of a bag it wouldn't really have it would make it that much more difficult to breathe because yeah yeah I've done it as a little experiment you know breathing through the mask and then taking your pomp the palm your hand and putting it over top of that it's still you're still able to breathe I think you're able to get a very little amount of air through the blood of there and you know maybe I just haven't sealed it like completely properly and it's also possible given that this is only a replica that the tubing isn't on there 100% perfectly but it certainly does become a lot more difficult to actually breathe through the thing so you have to have that space below to well ensure that you can breathe through it and again it being sort of yeah seated just over there the gas mask there there's plenty of space for you to be able to move your head around without having to worry about getting caught on anything that's another reason why you want to have this very high up on the chest so that way you actually can have it still seated there it's not being picked up and dragged along when you're moving your head but it's also pretty you know giving you plenty of slack room there with the hose what else we have the actual bag itself allow me to put the mask down here so we can talk a little bit about that the actual gas mask bag which in fairness I may be wearing it a little bit improperly because I just looked up online you know some photographs of how the men did it and I'd sort of slapped it on as best I could I've not actually taken any of my World War One equipment yet which is still very new I've got taken out to any event or any you know to see with any of the other World War one guys I'm sure that as soon as I actually do parade out there I can't be like alright you're wearing that wrong that's wrong cinch that up and fix that you know and so these new buttons on all these different sorts of things there might be some Farb isms with what I'm doing right now but of course in the coming months in the coming years those will all be corrected and here's hoping one day perfected at least as much as we possibly can but yes the actual bag here the way that I'm wearing it is sort of backwards at least it looks backwards at first I thought that this was backwards at first myself but it opens flat outwards like this and well again I'll show you the interior on a separate shot there but the way that it's held very high on the back like this isn't so much by cinching up the actual sides here with with a buckle of any sort but you can see on the very back it's how it's brought all the way down and then held in place with a bit of a tie there which actually I think I will remove the bag in order to show you how that tie system works I don't have to be wearing it anymore I don't think although I am convinced that as soon as I take the bag off then I will realize all right I could have talked about this other topic and then I'm gonna have to put the bag back on but in any case let's see if I can't actually work it here this may take a little while because I can't see a thing okay there we go so Mabel to untie this piece of string which actually does key piece of cord which goes along the back let me undo my shoulder tabs as well so I can remove the thing properly take that off hey there we are let's not get caught up in my microphone of course this is completely farby that is not eighth 18th century wow I'm so used to doing rev war videos this is not 1918 1917 in any capacity of course but let's get the hat back on we don't want to show my awful awful helmet hair but um yes the actual bag here let's see if I can send you back up of course simple you know class system there with two simple buttons I can actually keep the thing closed when it's not being used does it work but it has a very long strap there again it is going over the back and it's going over to over the back and sort of being held in place something like that where we have this piece of string C is attached to the top of the bag and is usually wound up between these two little swivels there you can take this piece of string and when it is held you know the bag is being held in a proper location there with the strap about half way down the back you take the string and you wrap it around your body through the strap around a couple times or twice at least before tying it back into place around one of the swivels this not only keeps the bag at an appropriately high or elevated location on the chest but it also keeps it nice and tight against the body that's something that I never really thought about when I actually first got the bag and I actually ended up putting it on like this and I just used one of the buckles here to cinch it up as high as I could even with being cinched up as high as I could it really was still you know down here or there abouts and of course whenever you spin around really quickly the bag is gonna go like this it's gonna be flopping all around but when you tie it into place like that it stays really nice and you know taut but a nice and tight against the body again very useful in a situation where you're dealing with you know the hack tactic environments they are simple enough I can then take the piece of string here and just sort of file it back on through so you can see what I mean by that but uh I think that that's pretty much all of these things that I wanted to talk about today as far as the SBR is concerned the again small box respirator I'm sure there's a great deal many little historical tidbits that I could throw in but this is really more of just a our first impressions of the kits type thing I was think about doing this for a few different items of my World War 1 uniform but that being said I'm sure there can be future videos about future concerns that the gas mask if we are so interested in so inclined but let's see here we are this will work this will work yep so you can see you simply have to tie the string between the two then you can you know tie it into a knot there on the end and it's able to be kept nice and neat there on the side so that way you know whenever you are not in a battlefield sort of environment you know if you're not in an area where you're expecting a gas attack you don't have to have the gas mask in a constant ready position like that it can it cost be rather constricting being tied tightly around the chest like that so you simply have a much longer sort of sling there so you can just have it across the shoulder and or you know across the haversack all these different things you know it can you you can wear it in a much more comfortable fashion but the capacity the capability is there to have it in that ready position whenever it is necessary so yes indeed there we have the SBR the I suppose I should Hara hold it for this part yes indeed I ought to oh yes indeed there we have the SBR the small box respirator one of the most sophisticated gas masks to come out of the First World War and I'm not entirely sure if the amount of effort is going to be worth it for the joke but I wanted to do this so Bob I'll be right back oh dear Oh [Music]

Channel: Brandon F.

Views: 53,396

Rating: 4.956604 out of 5

Keywords: brandon f, gas mask, WW1, world war one, 1917, 1918, SBR, small box respirator, ww1 reenacting, reenactment, newville, world war one reenacting, world war one uniforms, british army, BEF, AEF, chemical warfare, ph helmet, ph hood, the great war, tommy, doughboy

Id: 1xaA2exCUhQ

Length: 22min 58sec (1378 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 26 2018