toilet take on a lifesaving role in a1981 patentthat proposed the water trap within a basin could give a individual trapped in a burning elbow room access to fresh air . The patent claims that if a room is filled with toxic gases , the denizen just might survive by inserting a tube through the water and out the other side , sucking on their can schnorchel until help get .
The impressive out - the - corner thought process came from William O Holmes , who was inspired by a rash of high - rise hotel fires that leave in exit of spirit due to toxic weed inspiration . concord toMichigan State University , smoke inhalation is actually the most common drive of death in hours fires rather than burning .
When a fire breaks out , it necessitate oxygen to burn , so it does n’t take long before this is sapped from the environment . Without O to catch one’s breath , entrapped people will in all probability pass out before they have time to make it to the exits , or before service has time to come .
The user breathes through a snorkel-like mouthpiece through a tube that’s fitted with a filter to clear sewer gases. Image credit: William O Holmes viaGoogle Patents,Public Domain
That could all alteration were , say , a high - rise hotel to have some form of built - in airway to guests ’ rooms that acts as a gateway to fresh air while a person stay trap in toxic sens . recruit : the toilet .
While a tube into a toilet basin can do little to keep fervency at bay , Holmes argued it could provide life - saving access to cleaner air , buy the great unwashed trapped inside a burn edifice some precious special minutes to get out alive . So , how does it work ?
pot basins that are constantly filled with some liquid have a water trap that effectively prevents the golf hole in your toilet from being an candid gateway to the cloaca . As you could reckon , this has benefits for stopping unpleasant smells from getting through .
contain smell out surely means stopping smoke , and so Holmes ’s idea was to effectively dumbfound an elaborate snorkel through the water hole and get to the air on the other side . Provided an occupier did n’t burn , they just might populate long enough for some to get in with an atomic number 8 canister and get them safely out of the building .
If you ’re thinking that “ clean atmosphere ” is doing some heavy lifting when you ’re inhaling gutter gases , Holmes conceive of that too . The snorkel user would first flush the toilet to sweep away the cloaca gases mill about in the piping , and then a groovy blueprint queerness of hotels could help neutralize the air .
“ It is usual praxis to attach a fresh - melodic phrase blowhole in the form of a pipework or heap to the sewerage line to supply optimum surgery of the can , ” reads thepatent . “ The air vent ordinarily extends upwardly through the cap of a structure , such as a high - rise hotel , to divulge it to ambient fresh air travel . ”
“ The aviation vent will further officiate to rout out toilet gases to ambient and release any back pressure sensation on the toilet so that it does not guggle when drained and thriftlessness products do not back up , peculiarly into low level toilets when upper story privy are flush . ”
The figure also includes a filter that can suck up noxious and/or toxic impurities that remain in the sewer pipe line , perhaps ease by a fusain fastening .
It might not voice idealistic , but nobody allege outlast a fire would be pretty – and as uncanny patents go , it ’s find nothing onThe Interrogator .
