Siebe Gorman Salvus Rebreather

[GasMasksUK]

This is one of my more recent, and largest additions to my collection, and a bit of a first for me as its a rebreather. In particular a Salvus manufactured by the well know Siebe Gorman & Co, famous for making diving equipment and gas masks.

As this is quite an unusual and seldom seem item, here's a little bit of history; The Salvus is a lightweight oxygen rebreather originaly designed in the early 1900's, making the design over 100 years old. It has seen use in a very wide variety of applications over the past centuary including mine rescue, fire fighting, shallow water diving and by Machine Gunners on the Western Front during the First World War which is why its something that ties into military history. I am unsure of the purpose of this particular variation however I suspect that it is from the 1920's at the earliest due to the type of eyepieces used, and it may have been intended for industrial use due to the location of the bag. Its the only example of this specific configuration that I have ever seen so I am very keen to find out more about it. If anyone has any information on this particular type, please let me know.

I picked this one up from the good old ebay, it was originally up for grabs quite a few months ago but I unfortunately lost the auction which I was pretty gutted about. However not that long ago I was given a second chance from the seller at it as the original buyer had pulled out so it was a bit of an early Christmas present When I received it I was quite surprised by its weight, for quite a compact unit it is very heavy and very well made. Along with being very heavy, it was also very minging. Decades of dust, grime and cobwebs had attached themselves to it so a complete strip, clean and rebuild was needed. When initially freeing up the valves I heard a very faint hissing noise, so I opened them further and found that there was amazingly still air in the cylinder after all this time. I gave it a short while to empty itself before continuing. The unit came apart without any problem at all and to be honest I reckon that with the bag and mask replaced, air in the cylinder and the scrubber cleaned and re-filled it could probably used! However, I never intend to use this piece. A good clean and stabilisation of the rust is all I have done to it.

Thanks and enjoy the pictures below.

Danny


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Facepiece and hose (side view)

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Facepiece and hose (front view)

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Scrubber, air cylinder, valves and gauge.

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The whole unit

[ruddersrangers44]

Nice one Danny I never see anything remotely like this on fleabay,this is a first for me,congrats and thanks for sharing.........

[GasMasksUK]

For what is probably one of the most widely used rebreathers in the past 100 years they are rather seldom seen today, I'm definitely going to keep my eyes peeled for the other variations that exist as they're fantastic pieces

Thanks

Danny