The W.E.Garforth breathing apparatus
In 1906, William Edward Garforth, managing director and later director of Pope and Pearson presented his on-demand breathing apparatus for use in mines. The device with a 3-hour usage time and weighting 14,5 kg was distinguished by the breathing system used. In the early years of the 20th century, injector systems or constant mass flow systems were the common technique for adding oxygen to the breathing circuit. Garforth with his WEG (W.E.Garforth) device built valves in the mouth-nose piece that provided lung-controlled oxygen injection. These valves were integrated into the face piece and gave the user great freedom of movement. The oxygen cylinders were worn in a curved shape ergonomically at hip height on a vest. A unique rebreather for the time.
“Courtesy of the National Mining Museum Scotland Trust”
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!