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Up until the 1920s the use of breathing apparatus was limited by the distance dictated by the length of tubing attached to a bellows smoke helmet and the time limit imposed by the self-contained Vajen Baden smoke helmet as such the New South Wales Fire Brigades (NSWFB; now Fire and Rescue NSW , FRNSW) began to look for a type of breathing apparatus that would allow firefighters to move around freely and spend longer periods of time in smoke filled, toxic or oxygen deficient a

The Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus ‘Where there’s smoke, there’s fire’ may just be a mere adage to most, but the danger of smoke poses a far more sinister threat for firefighters. The modern day Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) bears little resemblance to early experimental SCBA prototypes of the late 19th century. While there are some early historical accounts of firefighters breathing through wet beards to combat the threat of smoke inhalation, the earliest re