1904 Draeger Modell 1904_09

The Dräger Modell 1904_1909 was one of the first mass production units for minerescue. The unit was build by Dräger and in the design team the Swiss Dr. Guglielminetti was involved.
The unit became famous because Germany assisted during the rescue of miners in the second biggest minedisaster in the world, the 1906 Courrieres disaster in France. In this disasters 1099 miners died after a dustexplosion. (The biggest disaster was in China in Benxi in 1942 1549 miners died..). This atmungsgerät modell 1904_09 was the first unit manufactured in large numbers. The unit was produced to be sold all over the world. Draeger Hefte claims that thousands of these units, and even hundred thousands of scrubbers were sold worldwide.

The unit based on the injector principle has two parallel scrubbers and a build in intercooler. Two oxygen bottles provide the rescuer with 2l/min of oxygen. The unit has split counterlungs and inhale and exhale valves.

The injector was part of an international dispute between Germany and mainly the UK.
Both parties claimed to have the saver system. Arguments against the injector principle was that the unit has a fixed ratio (2 ltr/min).
In case the rescuer had to work very hard the English claimed that metabolism could be bigger than 2l/min and thus under pressure in the counterlung could appear. This under pressure could be the reason poisonous gasses could enter the loop and be a danger for the rescuer. This argument has always been contradicted since the manual bypass was always available.

Dr. Guglieminetti was involved in the design of this unit. In Swiss and France the unit was also know as the Guglielminettie-Dräger resue apparatus. In the gallery you can find a postcard showing the unit during the Courrieres disaster.

This counterlung in the same photoseries seem to belong to the UK- Salvus rebreather, another model than 1904_09

This is a handle used to clean the glasses of a helmet.

Historia Draeger