Proto Apparatus

The Siebe Gorman 'Proto', a self-contained oxygen rebreathing set that was the standard equipment of British mines rescue teams for most of the 20th century, worn on the chest and back to let a rescuer work in smoke, firedamp or afterdamp for an hour or more without an external air supply.

Historical usage

Developed by the diving and breathing-apparatus manufacturer Siebe Gorman from the early 1900s, the Proto was selected in a 1908 trial of competing manufacturers' equipment at Howe Bridge Mines Rescue Station, the first dedicated mines rescue station in Britain, and went on to be manufactured from around 1914 to 1972. It became the standard self-contained breathing apparatus used by mines rescue teams across the United Kingdom for roughly seventy years, and the same design, in modified form, was also adopted by British fire brigades. Rescue workers trained on it were informally known in some countries as 'Proto men'.

How it worked

The set consisted of a chest-mounted canvas-covered breathing bag containing an absorbent chemical ('Protosorb') that scrubbed carbon dioxide from the wearer's exhaled breath, a metal cooling unit to dissipate the heat this reaction produced, one or two back-mounted oxygen cylinders that topped up the recycled air, and a mouthpiece with nose clip. Duration depended on cylinder size, typically giving a rescuer one to two hours of use.

Why it was used

A self-contained rebreather let rescue teams advance into atmospheres irrespirable to an unprotected person — thick smoke, firedamp or afterdamp — without needing a continuous piped air supply, making it possible to search and work well beyond the point any external air line could practically reach; this capability underpinned the fresh-air-base method of staged rescue advances.

Risks & limitations

The set was heavy and cumbersome, required extensive training to use safely, and its duration was strictly limited by the size of its oxygen cylinders and the capacity of its carbon dioxide absorbent — precisely the limitation that made staged advances from a fresh air base necessary on long operations rather than a single continuous search.

Images

Disasters associated with this term

Included only where MineArchive's own research gives a reasonable evidential basis, with the nature of the relationship stated — not every disaster where this term might plausibly apply.

• Burngrange Oil Shale Mine explosion and fire, 1947 (relevant method/equipment)
  The disaster's own recorded rescue account explicitly describes rescue workers using Proto breathing apparatus.

Sources

1. (primary) 'Proto' self-contained breathing rescue apparatus — Science Museum Group Collection
2. (secondary) Siebe Gorman Proto — Wikipedia

Record created: 23 August 2026 · Last researched: 23 August 2026