Canteen For Use With A Gas Mask

Abstract

An improved protective mask means having a drinking and resuscitation connection means to permit drinking and resuscitation while wearing the mask in a contaminated atmosphere.

Parent Case Text

This application is a divisional application of my pending U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 804,188 filed 4 March 1969 now U.S. Pat. No. 3,635,217.

Description

DEDICATORY CLAUSE

The invention described herein may be manufactured, used, and licensed by or for the Government for governmental purposes without the payment to me of any royalty thereon.

My invention relates to an improvement in gas masks for combat and industrial use, such as the mask disclosed in U. S. Pat. Ser. No. 2,910,979. My improvement provides a means for drinking and resuscitation while the mask is being worn and without necessitating removal of the mask.

There has been a long felt need in the protective mask art to develop a satisfactory means for drinking and resuscitation in contaminated atmospheres requiring the use of a gas mask, and my invention was conceived and reduced to practice to solve this problem and satisfy this long felt need.

A principal object of my invention is to provide a means incorporated in a conventional gas mask whereby drinking and resuscitation can be accomplished while wearing the mask.

Another object of my invention is to provide a drinking and resuscitation means for a conventional gas mask which is simple and economical to manufacture, has few parts, is not subject to tinkering and damage, and which can be installed in the mask in the field.

Other objects will be obvious from or will appear in the specification hereinafter set forth.

FIG. 1 is a view showing the drinking utility of my invention with a prior art mask.

FIG. 2 is a view showing the resuscitation utility and the connections for my invention with a prior art mask such as shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a view of a tee construction for my drinking improvement installed in the speech transmitter of a prior art mask.

FIG. 4 is a view through section 4--4 of the tee construction shown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a side view of the tee construction shown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 6 is a view through section 6--6 of the tee construction shown in FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is a view of an embodiment having a neck molded to the facepiece and nosecup for hose clamp means attaching of the flexible tubing connecting the drinking and resuscitation mouthpiece to a quick disconnect coupling.

FIG. 8 is a view of a canteen means having a quick disconnect coupling means to use with my mask drinking means.

FIG. 9 is a view of the canteen of FIG. 8 connected to the mask male connection member shown in FIGS. 2 and 14.

FIG. 10 is a view showing a flushing embodiment for the drinking and resuscitation means.

FIG. 11 is a view of the flushing embodiment shown in FIG. 10 but in the flushing position.

FIG. 12 is a view of the mask male connection member with the dust cap in place.

FIG. 13 is a view through section 13--13 of the canteen quick disconnect means shown in FIG. 9.

FIG. 14 is a view of the resuscitator means quick disconnect means connected to the mask male connection member.

FIG. 15 is a view through section 15--15 of the resuscitator quick disconnect means shown in FIG. 14.

My invention and FIGS. 1 to 15 will now be described in detail as follows.

Mouthpiece 2 is fixedly connected to one end of rubber tubing means 3 by any conventional means such as adhesive, hose clamp means, etc. The other end of rubber tubing means 3 is connected in the same manner to the flange of male member 7 of a plastic or metal lead-in grommet 4; grommet 4 being mounted within facepiece 5 of mask 1 by screwing a female cap member 6 of the grommet onto the threaded male member 7 of the grommet inserted through a hole in the nosecup 60. Metal band 8 having metal strip 59 welded thereto is fixedly mounted to tubing 3 in any conventional manner, such as taping etc., to provide rigidity to the tubing and to permit the mouthpiece to be adjusted to the comfort and facial configuration of the individual mask wearer. Mouthpiece 2 and tubing 3 are located adjacent to and behind the mask voice transmitter 9. A second rubber tubing means 10 has one end connected to the male grommet member and the other end to the mask male drinking and resuscitation connection member 11. Rubber dust cap 12 is fixedly connected to male connector 11 by any conventional means such as taping etc. of rubber strap 13 to connector 11; the dust cap being provided to cover connector 11 when the mask is not being used for drinking or resuscitation. When the mask is not being used for drinking or resuscitation, connection member 11 and tubing 10 are prevented from dangling free by connecting rubber strap 14 to metal or plastic fastening means 15 by means of hole 16; the fastening means being a double headed pin inserted through a hole in cover 17. An alternate mode of mounting tubing 3 and 10 to mask 1, as shown in FIG. 7, involves connecting tubing 3 to tubing 10 by rigid ferrule 20 and threading the assembled tubing and ferrule through flanges 18 and 19 molded integrally to nosecup 60 and facepiece 5 respectively. Alternative to using rubber tubing 10 for the drinking and resuscitation embodiment, a rigid tee conduit means 21, having a rotatable arm 22 which rotates through 180.degree. in a plane parallel to the plane of the mask vertical axis and conduits 26 integral with arm 22, is mounted in the mask voice transmitter frame 23 below the voice transmitter 9. Tee 21 is mounted in voice transmitter frame 23 and connected to tee 24 by conventional rigid tubing means; conduits 26 passing through rubber grommet means 25 to be connected to tee 24, grommet 25 permitting flexibility to move mouthpiece 2 to the mouth of the mask wearer. Tee 24 is identical to tee 21 except that it does not have a movable arm 22, but tee 24 has a non-movable arm 27 mounted above and integral with conduits 26; arm 27 being in a plane parallel to the plane of arm 22. This embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 3, 4, 5, and 6, is utilized to swing arm 22 above conduits 26, connect canteen means 28 or resuscitation means 52 to male connection member 11, fixedly mounted by any conventional means such as rubber tubing and clamp within arm 22, and permit fluid flow to the mask wearer. To enable drinking without removing the mask from the wearer's face, canteen 28 is provided with a cap 29 having a quick disconnect coupling 30 mounted to the cap by threaded member 31 and nut means 32; threaded member 31 being hollow, cylindrical in configuration, and having a square shaft 33 located within member 31 to form channels 34 to permit fluid flow between member 31 and shaft 33, as shown in FIGS. 8, 9, and 13. Shaft 33 is provided with a head means 35 to retain spring 36 in position and maintain the shaft under spring tension. The opposite end of shaft 33 is provided with a removable head means 37 to retain washer 38 in position and close off fluid flow through channels 34 when the mask wearer does not wish to drink and has not connected male connector 11 to coupling 30. To drink, dust cap 39 is removed from coupling 30, male connector 11 is inserted within coupling 30, as shown in FIG. 9, so that projection 40 of shaft 33 engages the recess within valve 41; valve 41 being held under spring tension by spring 42, the spring being held in position by projection 43 of spider plate 44 and projection 45 of valve 41. Pressure is applied to male member 11 until lip 46 passes over annular ridge 47 within coupling 30 and ridge 47 rests within annular recess 48 of member 11. When male member 11 reaches the position wherein ridge 47 is within recess 48, valve 41 has been pushed back from seat 49 by depression of spring 42 and washer 38 has been pushed back from closing off channels 34 by depression of spring 36; fluid flow through channels 34 occurring prior to removal of valve 41 from seat 49. Fluid will then flow from canteen 28, into cap 29, into male member 11, through spider plate 44, through tubing 10 or rotatable member 22 on to mouthpiece 2, and to the mouth of the mask wearer. Hole means 50 can be provided in male member 11 between lip 46 and valve seat 49 for alignment with hole means 51 in coupling 30 to provide fluid flushing action to remove any contamination which might accumulate within member 11 or coupling 30 during connection of member 11 within coupling 30. The location of holes 50 and 51 is such that they align, as shown in FIG. 11, after the start of fluid flow through channels 34 but prior to removal of valve 41 from seat 49 to permit fluid to flush through to the outside environment, and the holes are out of alignment, as shown in FIG. 10, after removal of valve 41 from seat 49 to permit fluid flow to the mouth of the mask wearer as described above. The resuscitator 52 embodiment of my invention, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 14, is employed when someone attempts to revive a person in a contaminated atmosphere, such as gas or smoke, requiring the wearing of a protective mask by the person attempting to revive. Mouthpiece 53 is held on the mouth of the person requiring resuscitation and mask male member 11 is inserted within resuscitator coupling 54 until annular ridge 55 of the coupling snaps into annular recess 48 of member 11, in the same fashion as described above regarding the drinking embodiment. When ridge 55 is within recess 48, pin 56 has removed valve 41 from seat 49 through depression of spring 42 to permit the breath of the person attempting to revive to pass through the spider cross section 61, as shown in FIG. 15, of coupling 54, to force open disc type valve 57, which prevents feed back to the person attempting to revive during inhalation, and to permit the air to pass on through rubber hose means 58 and mouthpiece 53 to the person being revived.

I wish it to be understood that I do not desire to be limited to the exact details of construction shown and described, for obvious modifications will occur to a person skilled in the art.

Claims

I claim:

1. A canteen means adapted to be used with a gas mask comprising a container means having an open end, said open end being adapted to having a mask connector means inserted therein; a canteen cap means having an open end and a hole means in the closed end, said cap means covering the container means; a canteen coupling means having an inner wall, superimposed on the cap means closed end and fixedly mounted to said cap means, said canteen coupling means having an open end and a closed end having a hole means therein, said canteen coupling closed end hole means being aligned with the cap means closed end hole means; a cylindrical, hollow member having threads on a portion of its length surrounded by the cap means closed end hole means and the canteen coupling means closed end hole means and projecting into the cap means and the canteen coupling means, said cylindrical member having a head means integral therewith and adjacent to the threads, said cylindrical member head means being disposed within the canteen coupling means and contacting the canteen coupling means closed end; a nut means securing the cylindrical member within the cap means closed end hole means and the canteen coupling means closed end hole means and providing a hermetic seal of the canteen coupling means to the canteen cap means; a square shaft means surrounded by the cylindrical member to form a plurality of channels for fluid flow between an inner wall surface of the cylindrical member and a wall surface of the square shaft, said shaft projecting into the cap means and the canteen coupling means and extending past the ends of the cylindrical member, said shaft having a head means integral with the shaft within the canteen coupling means and being adapted to retain a spring means under tension between the integral shaft head means and the cylindrical member head means; a removable head means connected to the shaft means at the end thereof opposite to the shaft integral head means and retaining a washer means on the shaft means; a spring means surrounding the shaft means and located between the cylindrical member head means and the shaft integral head means, said spring means retaining the shaft means under spring tension and maintaining a hermetic seal formed by said washer means over the plurality of channels to prevent fluid flow from the canteen cap means to the canteen coupling means when a wearer is not using the mask for drinking or resuscitation function; said washer means being adjacent to the shaft removable head means, said washer means covering the plurality of channels and preventing fluid flow from the canteen cap means to the canteen coupling means when a wearer is not using the mask for drinking or resuscitation function; a projection means integral with the shaft means and extending past the shaft integral head means, said projection means being adapted to displace a mask connector valve means from a valve seat means when the mask connector is inserted within the canteen coupling means and to displace the shaft washer means as a cover for the plurality of channel means to permit fluid flow from the canteen means into the connector means; an annular ridge means integral with the canteen coupling means inner wall and adjacent to the canteen coupling means open end, said annular ridge means being adapted to be retained within a recessed wall portion of the mask connector means and to maintain a connection between the mask connector means and the canteen coupling means; and a dust cap means adapted to cover the open end of the canteen coupling means when the mask is not being used for drinking or resuscitation function.