Faraday on Holding One's Breath (and Surviving a Fall into a Cesspool)

JF Ptak Science Books  Quick Post

In trying to figure our a small/short stack of Michael Faraday offprints this morning I came across something that was very unusual.  I was hoping to find his great paper of 1833--a work that provided some of the basic gel that would start to hold together the great ideas of mass communication and the computer and the internet--but came up with something in that same year that was entirely different. And unexpected. 

In addition to writing gobs of high and applicable importance, in theory and practice, in the history of electricity and magnetism and much else, Faraday published a work on how to expand your capacity to hold your breath. "Notice of a Means of Preparing the Organs of Respiration, so as Considerably to Extend the Time of Holding the Breath, with Remarks on its Application..."  found in the Philosophical Magazine (October, 1833, pp (241)-244) was exactly what it said it was, with bits on how best to expand your lungs to be able to not breathe for longer periods of time.  Just in case. 

And what might that case be?  Or cases? The obvious is being able to hold your breath longer in the case of being in a fire or a building filled with smoke.  Then there's the case of falling into "an open cesspool", which I wouldn't have thought of but which must have been far more common then that it is today.

He writes:  "Now this effect may be rendered exceedingly valuable. There are many occasions on which a person who can hold breath for a minute or two minutes might save the life of another. If in a brewer's fermenting vat or an opened cesspool one man sinks senseless and helpless from breathing the unsuspected noxious atmosphere within another man of cool mind would by means of this mode of preparation which requires nothing but what is always at hand have abundant time in most cases to descend by the ladder or the bucket chamber..."

Faraday must've read/heard a story about someone drowning in a brewer's vat, or cesspool, or perhaps someone had been killed trying to rescue the unfortunate stumbler, and so came to write about how best to survive in those circumstances.  It is just an interesting sidelight into a great mind. 

Comments

[Charles]

I have heard of the "One Breath Method" of entering a toxic environment by inhaling deeply (even hyperventilating a bit first) and then entering, holding one's breath as long as possible, exhaling, holding, then only inhaling again after exiting the toxic environment.

I use the One Breath Method frequently in my darkroom, when I process photographic prints with an antiquated process that liberates a lot of hydrogen sulfide gas. I can keep the door shut and the vent fans on, only entering long enough to pour out the chems, exit to breathe, put the prints in tray, exit, put the prints in the water wash, exit, then pour the chems back in the bottle.

Unfortunately, this isn't very safe. Sometimes you hear of industrial accidents when someone was overcome by fumes inside a tank, and someone goes in to rescue him and is also overcome. Perhaps people overestimate their ability to hold their breath.