“In apartments loaded with smoke to an extent that would render it difficult to breathe at the height of a person’s head previously mentioned the flooring, there is in practically each individual occasion a draft of awesome, pure air near the flooring. To take benefit of this circumstance a restricted-fitting mask has been adapted, from which count air tubes, by which a particular person breathes the extremities of the tubes achieve to in an inch or two of the flooring.”

—Scientific American, July 1857

A lot more gems from Scientific American’s initially one hundred seventy five years can be found on our shiny anniversary webpage.