An old saying goes that a prepared man is worth two, but how far should that preparation go? According to a patent published in 1981... breathe through a toilet. Yes, with the help of a special device, a person trapped in a room who cannot breathe due to a fire or excessive smoke can access additional oxygen in the drain pipes, separated from contaminated air by the water trap of the toilet.
A Life-and-Death Scenario
The exercise is more interesting than it seems: Suppose a person stays on the 25th floor of a luxury hotel. The hotel suffers multiple fires, blocking the possibility of going up or down. The air quickly becomes contaminated, and for safety reasons, the windows cannot be opened. That person needs to buy time until firefighters arrive. Breaking a window might be an option, but what other alternatives exist?
The Patent and Its Device
According to William O. Holmes and his patent US4320756A from 1981 (granted a year later), the "Toilet Snorkel" could save that person's life. Actually, that is not its official title: the patent simply describes a "fresh air breathing device", but everything becomes clear once we study the technical drawings.
In essence, the device is a flexible hose that the trapped person inserts into the toilet (read: toilet, water closet, etc.) beyond the water trap. In that way, they access the "fresh air" that is separated by the liquid. In one of the drawings, the device ends like any hose, but there is an option to connect that end to a mask. Another important element appears in Figures 3 and 4: an activated carbon filter that limits exposure to sewer gases and other impurities.
The Filter and Its Fate
Of course, determining the effectiveness of that filter would be an exercise in itself, but the truth is that nobody manufactured the toilet snorkel as a "commercial product" (or at least, I have not found any case). Now that the patent has expired, I suppose some extreme DIY enthusiast could give it a try...
Access the patent: Click here
Source: Vintage Everyday
