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beamjockeyI owe my visitors an explanation of the peculiar picture in my last entry.
The mystery photo appears as Figure 1 in "Physiology And Operational Comparison Of MC-1 And MC-3 (MC-4) Partial Pressure Suits," by Capt. Terence F. McGuire, published in 1960 (PDF here).
The bizarre-looking device is a pressure differential tank, a way to apply different pressures to a subject's head and to his body.
Conceivably, in an aircraft, a pilot's lungs could be at a lower or higher pressure than his helmet. If lower, they would have to do extra work to exhale; if higher, extra work to inhale. Capt. McGuire and his colleagues were experimenting to find the limits of tolerance for these differentials. Within the cabinet, the subject was wearing one of the U.S. Air Force partial-pressure suits.
(Before you ask: yes, I believe this device could be made to function as a CPAP machine.)
Thanks to the folks at the IIT Contrails project for digitizing some of the Wright Air Development Center publications from the Jet Age.
The mystery photo appears as Figure 1 in "Physiology And Operational Comparison Of MC-1 And MC-3 (MC-4) Partial Pressure Suits," by Capt. Terence F. McGuire, published in 1960 (PDF here).
The bizarre-looking device is a pressure differential tank, a way to apply different pressures to a subject's head and to his body.
Conceivably, in an aircraft, a pilot's lungs could be at a lower or higher pressure than his helmet. If lower, they would have to do extra work to exhale; if higher, extra work to inhale. Capt. McGuire and his colleagues were experimenting to find the limits of tolerance for these differentials. Within the cabinet, the subject was wearing one of the U.S. Air Force partial-pressure suits.
(Before you ask: yes, I believe this device could be made to function as a CPAP machine.)
Thanks to the folks at the IIT Contrails project for digitizing some of the Wright Air Development Center publications from the Jet Age.
