As a child I was fixated with Jacques Cousteau, the french marine explorer – innovator – documentary and film maker. And one of the things that always struck me, apart from his accent when pronouncing “Calypso” his ship, was that he had co-developed the aqua-lung. This is the tank contraption that allows divers to breathe underwater with much greater mobility.
A design revolution in its time as it replaced those heavy, cumbersome oxygen suits that were anchored by weights and resembled some sort of deep sea monster from a Jules Verne novel. I always thought of them as the “missing sea link”. They restricted the divers mobility not just because it was difficult to walk under water and therefore the diver could only go down to an accessible depth for walking, but also because air was delivered though a hose connected to an air compressor.
The diver was therefore always connected through a hose to a compressor somewhere above – if something malfunctioned with the compressor…
I suspect that aqua-lungs, developed for our survival under water where we can’t breathe, were the inspiration for the types of oxygen systems that are in use today.
The first portable oxygen units to be made for people who need additional oxygen were in fact tanks filled with compressed oxygen. This was an important innovation as before this patients were dependent on a clinic delivering and supplying oxygen. For those needing oxygen on a full time basis it meant never being able to leave the clinic. A most highly depressing state of affairs.
The good thing about human ingenuity is that when a problem is identified (just a note on a definition of a problem – if there is a solution then it is a problem; if not, it isn’t a problem but a state of affairs that can’t be changed) a solution will be found or developed.
This is what happened for patients who needed oxygen. New solutions were needed and the portable tank, holding compressed oxygen, was made.
Then came a tank carrying liquid oxygen – and this had the advantage of being lighter and holding a much greater amount of oxygen.
Finally during the first decade of this century, oxygen concentrators came into the scene -and the mobility potential they have brought with them represents such a difference in the lives of those who need extra oxygen, that it is hardly comparable.
In the near future there will be more innovations both for tank and cylinder systems and for oxygen concentrators that will be continuously providing more mobility and a higher quality of life. And as always with human nature, the limitations that those before us had to live with will be incomprehensible to us.
But that is good as it means that higher expectations will generate greater results. And perhaps the greatest result these respiratory aids have brought us is a much greater freedom of movement thanks to these portable oxygen machines.