Breathing at altitudes where there is a lack of oxygen
This information is about high altitude breathing equipment. The unit shown on this page was a predecessor of the breathing equipment in use these days. The pictures of the Ahrendt and Heplandt Altitude breathing apparatus were sent to me by Werner Engelen, for which I am of course very grateful!
For high altitude flying, from 4000 meters and higher, it was necessary for the crew to find breathing equipment to be able to breath oxygen for respiration. Therefore the German company Ahrendt and Heplandt developed a breathing apparatus that was produced in two versions, a small type en a larger type. Based on a vaporization system the apparatus was filled with liquid air. The air was vaporized and is was breathed through a hose and mouthpiece, or breathing mask. The system was designed in such way that with increasing high the gas dosage increased as well. The unit was preheated with a heating system to start the vaporization. The small unit was a 3 kg unit and contained 1,3 ltr liquid air, and the bigger unit weights 4 kg and contained 2,3 ltr of liquid air.
This page shows a beginning of the collection of equipment used for breathing at altitude. The first systems were developed around the time that ballooning started.
Aanvullende informatie welkom!
Therebreathersite was founded by Jan Willem Bech in 1999. After a diving career of many years, he decided to start technical diving in 1999. He immediately noticed that at that time there was almost no website that contained the history of closed breathing systems. The start for the website led to a huge collection that offered about 1,300 pages of information until 2019. In 2019, a fresh start was made with the website now freely available online for everyone. Therebreathersite is a source of information for divers, researchers, technicians and students. I hope you enjoy browsing the content!