A Historical Overview of the Hungarian Fire Brigade and Civil Defense Breathing Apparatus at the Turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries

– Part 1, the Filter-Type

Abstract

This article is a research of a slice of the history of the profession, and the results of the research in the field of respiratory protection in Hungary. The aim of this publication is to examine, summarise and disseminate the results of a less researched but useful historical background for the fire and civil protection field. The target group under investigation is the civil defence and fire brigades from the 19^th century to the first half of the 20^th century, which were typically used in Hungary. The research method is based primarily on the review of the professional literature of the period from which the most relevant devices of the period have been summarised. Based
on the article, the different respiratory protection devices used by different fire brigades and civil defence corps in Hungary in the given period will become visible. Because of the high degree of illustration of the individual sources and devices, the topic is developed in a three-part article, broken down according to the operating principle of each device. In this first part the filter-type and fresh-air types are described, in the second part the actual filter-type, and in the third part the oxygen respirators.