Wacky Patent: Fresh-Air Breathing Device & Method

Should your hotel amenities include toilet snorkels? That is not something you consider every day and may think it is just an attention grabber. However, this invention solves a more serious problem than what you may expect.

Around the 1970s and 1980s, a series of fires in high-rise hotels led the public to realize that during a building fire, carbon monoxide poisoning by smoke inhalation place people in a higher risk of dying than the flames themselves. Fire department ladders cannot reach most of the floors affected by smoke and many people are left without a clear escape route and depleting available oxygen. For this reason, William Holmes invented a device that would allow its user to access a fresh-air source accessible to most but considered by few: toilets.

Holmes argued that the water trap in toilets that block sewer gasses from entering the toilet bowl would also prevent toxic smoke from entering a chamber of the toilet that is in communication with an air vent. By flushing the toilet, the user can expel the sewer gasses from the chamber and fill it with fresh air from the air vent instead. This fresh air chamber can be tapped and taken advantage of in an emergency by inserting the end of a hose into the water bowl and bending it until the open end reaches the fresh-air chamber  The other side of the hose includes a mouthpiece for the user to use and breathe in the fresh air. Additionally, the device included a filter canister to filter any other toxic gasses that could be inhaled by the user.

Who would have thought that something as crazy sounding as a toilet snorkel could save your life? Sure breathing in any sewer gas may not be an ideal situation, but in this case at least, desperate times call for desperate measures.

You can read the rest of the patent here.