Perhaps the first CPAP mask patent

If you want a laugh, take a look at this patent. Treatment for snoring sickness.
The design incorporates a flow restriction that regulates the pressure that the patient receives. Very interesting........

This made me smile.....hope it does you too.

http://www.google.com/patents?id=kzkeAA ... ap#PPA1,M1


Karen

Hmmm.... Can't quite decipher it all out, but I can definitely see some parts that don't need to be there.

Funny find!!!! Thanks Karen!
B.

Hey Karen!

What caught my eye were the dates. How long has CPAP therapy been in use? The original patent referred to here was 1982. This one was filed in 1990 as an ongoing continuation of that patent. Is CPAP therapy still that new?

Other than that, all I can say is that I'd not want that mask... Leakage is bad enough already. Imagine not having that thing strapped down and wearing it the way it's shown on the drawing. I have a feeling that a large number of lab rat awards would be handed out to the poor souls who were victims of that mask script.

Actually, on the "About this Patent" tab, there's a chronological history of the devices and patents:

http://www.google.com/patents?id=kzkeAAAAEBAJ

The mask itself, looks like a predecessor to the Swift (ResMed) and the inventor was Dr. Colin Sullivan (worked for ResMed).

Den

Ok, now you guys have me going through all the patents... It's like wiping out during web surfing and getting tossed about in the rough waves...

I had to stop once I got to this one though. I keep trying to find "one better" and was doing a fine job until I ran across this. It'll take a while to surpass this:

"Snopper - The Snoring Stopper" Man, my electricity bill would be through the roof and I'd look like Don King if I had to use this. http://www.google.com/patents?id=P_0dAA ... =4#PPA1,M1

Good find

That diag is just the mask part - the application doesn't show the pump (blower).

the really amusing part is the Colin Sullivan the person behind that patent, is regarded as the father of diagnosing Sleep Apnea - his paper on PAP (Positive Airway Pressure) ignited the industry & triggered the setting up of the company called Resmed. Closely following Sullivan's papers, Respironics were another company who followed through on his work and pioneered some of the great advances we have today (Respironics were 1st with the bilevel (Bipap) while Resmed were 1st with the Cpap & the Auto).

Among the early Resmed machines were models called the Sullivan I, II & III before they renamed them VPAPs.

Sullivan's early masks were stuck on peoples faces with fast setting rubber glue - his earliest cpaps used washing machine motors then vacuum cleaner motors.

DSM

Interesting that the pressure was regulated or at least fine-tuned at the mask rather than the machine. Other than that pressure-adjusting exhaust tube, it almost looks like the modern Swift.

What a great historical document of the very beginnings of some brilliant work in progress from a brilliant pioneer of CPAP.

-SWS wrote:Interesting that the pressure was regulated or at least fine-tuned at the mask rather than the machine. Other than that pressure-adjusting exhaust tube, it almost looks like the modern Swift.

What a great historical document of the very beginnings of some brilliant work in progress from a brilliant pioneer of CPAP.

SWS,

Going on an educated guess, I believe that Puritan Bennett took up Sullivan's nasal mask concept & produced the mask known as the 'Adams Circuit' - I actually own one of the prototypes & have a couple of new unused Adams Cct masks

We have come an extraorinarily long way in such a short time.

DSM

robrdavis wrote:"Snopper - The Snoring Stopper" Man, my electricity bill would be through the roof and I'd look like Don King if I had to use this. http://www.google.com/patents?id=P_0dAA ... =4#PPA1,M1

eeeee gads!!! that was one scary read...

I tried to follow-up on this thread by finding a link to a book I once had as a kid "Inventions that never made it" -- it was a funny little kid's book that had all sorts of weird inventions that ... well... never really made it! My favorite was a patent for an alarm clock: it was some sort of wooden contraption that would basically fall on your bed to wake you up in the morning. What's even more amusing is that that is the invention I remember from the entire book... see, I'm SURE had OSA even as a kid!! I tried to find the book on amazon, to no avail. I'm not that old?!

robrdavis wrote:Ok, now you guys have me going through all the patents... It's like wiping out during web surfing and getting tossed about in the rough waves...

I had to stop once I got to this one though. I keep trying to find "one better" and was doing a fine job until I ran across this. It'll take a while to surpass this:

"Snopper - The Snoring Stopper" Man, my electricity bill would be through the roof and I'd look like Don King if I had to use this. http://www.google.com/patents?id=P_0dAA ... =4#PPA1,M1

Hmmmm

Was this invented somewhere in Germany during WW2

Vhen yoo schtop scnorring ve vill make yoo talk

DSM

robrdavis wrote:It'll take a while to surpass this:

"Snopper - The Snoring Stopper" Man, my electricity bill would be through the roof and I'd look like Don King if I had to use this. http://www.google.com/patents?id=P_0dAA ... =4#PPA1,M1

E-gads! If this would have become the fix, my wife wouldn't be able to call me airhead. Instead, she'd be yelling, "Hey Sparky!"

Ya know they may have had something there. Like the tummy tightener belt that sends tingles of electricity to spasm the stomach muscles, a series of jolts to the soft pallet would stiffen it up. Can think of a couple other uses also.