Item Description
Original Item: Only One Available. This is a nice used example of an M1917 SBR Gas Mask complete with mask, filter, carry satchel. It still has the large spring under the filter, which helps to space the filter from the bottom of the satchel. The mask itself, like most from the WWI period, has unfortunately had the rubber components completely degrade, so it is in somewhat delicate condition. Early rubber becomes quite hard over time, and then crumble, as they have in this example. Both eyepieces are however still in quite good condition.
The filter and satchel are in better shape, and the satchel is even named to G. F. WHITAKER on the back. This will make a great part of any WWI collection, a vital piece of equipment for the one world war where gas was routinely deployed.
Of the 5,250,000 gas masks of all types produced by the U.S. during the war, 1.6 million of them were the improved version of the British SBR. This mask was officially known as the U.S. Corrected English Small Box Respirator or the U.S. Corrected English Model (CEM). Produced in six sizes (1 through 6) from January to March 1918, the CEM was one of the two most commonly worn American made gas masks used by the AEF.
Despite complaints from France regarding the British SBRs uncomfortable mouthpiece and its despised hated nose-clip, American gas experts determined that this type of respirator provided the best protection. Ever since the failure of the ASBR, American gasmask designers toiled to modify, improve, and ultimately make the American version of the SBR more comfortable, more reliable and stronger than the English mask that it mirrored. After numerous revisions, by October of 1917, the design had been perfected. Upon passing a comprehensive battery of field tests, the CEM respirator went into full scale production in January of 1918. It would be the very first U.S. made gasmask to see service in the gas soaked trenches of the Western Front.
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