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AEF Gasmasks & Respirators 1917 to 1919


world war I nerd
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world war I nerd

Duke, no problem. As long as the images and information is relevant, post as much as you'd like. The more information we can gather on gas-masks as used by the AEF in one place, the better.

 

Speaking of gas-masks and respirators, here's a photo of, from left to right. a French M2 mask, an American corrected English (CE) mask, a French 1917 ARS mask and a 1917 German Lederschutzenmaske worn by American ambulance personnel.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Photo No. 149: Although they were primarily used as messengers, pigeons carrying small cameras were sometimes put to use as aerial photographers. Before launching, a timer was set on the camera, which snapped the camera’s shutter at predetermined intervals while the pigeon flew over enemy territory.

 

Having seen a number of the photos with pigeons with cameras strapped to them, I seriously doubt that they were ever used during WWI. I do know that a photo was taken from a pigeon before airplanes were around, but the chance that a photo would be of any value from such a device is slight, and this type of camera could only take a single photo, as there was no auto winding mechanism. But the biggest problem I see with the cameras show is negative effect they would have on CG, with that much weight so far forward, it is unlikely the bird could fly at all.

Having said that, this is an outstanding thread on gas masks!

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  • 8 months later...
DukeNougat3d

Been a while since I've posted here, seems like the site formatting has updated quite a bit to include larger sized files! Thought I'd share this Kops-Tissot that I was able to pick up last April. 

Not much to say about my example that cannot be said for others - the facepiece is as rigid as they typically are and the hose, tissot deflector, and flutter valve are all petrified/chipped off. No visible date stamps on the mask, but the carrier is dated October 1918, so I'm willing to bet that the mask was made around then as well. The Eyepieces and Flutter Valve Guard are the last/third pattern, which is the most common to find.

Many thanks to the two people who pointed this example out and sold it to me, you know who you are.

Kops-Tissot,_Model_of_1918_(2).JPG

Kops-Tissot,_Model_of_1918_(3).JPG

Kops-Tissot,_Model_of_1918_(4).JPG

Kops-Tissot, Model of 1918 (7).JPG

Kops-Tissot,_Model_of_1918_(8).JPG

Kops-Tissot,_Model_of_1918_(5).JPG

Kops-Tissot,_Model_of_1918_(6).JPG

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DukeNougat3d

Also, fun fact, it seems that the A.T. and K.T. masks exceeded long past their service lifespan, being used as training masks well into the 1930's!
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Source: Technical Regulations 1120-35 (1930)

 

Also here we can see a group of Akron-Tissot Type B Masks being used as training masks in the 1920's. I had originally purchased this photograph, but the seller lost it in a fire immediately after it was purchased (so they claimed).

Cunningham, Green, and Porterfield after Gas Drill (Akron-Tissot, Model of 1918, Type B with Besse Eyepieces).jpg

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RustyCanteen

Nice mask, yes some of the obsolete patterns were retained for training purposes only. That was the ultimate fate of the earliest US masks, and many of the earliest US carriers were marked with 'For Training Purposes Only' in red ink, a bunch of those were declared surplus after WWI (since their use for even a training mask was obsolete by then) and can be seen IIRC in 'The Big Parade' (the silent film of 1925). 

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  • 2 months later...

Hello all again, I haven't been studying much WWI stuff as of late, but I picked up something not long ago that's worth sharing here. Here we have one of the few surviving examples of an original Model of 1919 (Later MI) Felt Service Canister. These, as most of you may recollect, were issued with the Kops-Tissot-Monro (KTM) Mask beginning October 1918 and continued service into the 1920's, where it was quickly phased out of service with subsequent models throughout the interwar period as the requirements for smoke protection kept increasing.

This particular example is from the former collection of Bart Wilkus, which can be seen on "USA: Page 1" with mask specimen "US-012". This example resided in the hands of Spanish Sculptor Viktor Ferrando for many years when he bought off a majority of Bart's collection in 2014-2015 or so. He has been recently reselling a lot of masks, and so I was luckily able to acquire this. It came with a postwar MSA Burrell 'Kops-Type' Industrial Facepiece as displayed on Bart's website, which is remarkably similar to the wartime KTM in many ways, but has several subtle differences in material and construction, so I will not post it and only show the canister to avoid confusion.

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1918 U.S. Kops, Tissot, & Monro Gas Mask.png

American K.T.M. Filter.jpg

Gas Mask Canisters (Service).png

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  • 3 months later...

I see something new every time I read this thread!

 

I figured I would share an anomaly I found recently. It is fairly ordinary except the fact that it doesn't appear to have ever been fitted with a flutter valve guard. It has the metal eyepieces and yellow filter indicating that isn't a training mask, but the valve is rather odd looking. 

 

Any thoughts? 

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  • 1 month later...

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