Today, air purifiers are all the craze. Every allergy sufferer, asthmatic and condition nut in the world has one, but believe it or not, there was a time when we didn't have air purifiers. We naturally breathed the air that was in our homes and somehow managed to survive. So when did this craze undoubtedly begin? How did it start?
Types of air purification have undoubtedly been colse to for over 200 years in some form or another, though most citizen don't comprehend it. The truth is, since the early 1800s, scientists have been trying to find ways to make our air cleaner, long before the market revolution ever hit and California began to look like an outdoor barbecue on a high flame.
To kick this technology off, in the early 1800s John and Charles Dean industrialized a mask for fire fighters. This mask allowed them to charge into burning buildings without having to worry about being overcome by smoke fumes from the fire. colse to that same time, masks were also made for divers and coal miners who were permanently exposed to perilous air, but it wasn't until the 1850s that the first gas mask was industrialized by John Stenhouse. The mask worked on a charcoal based filter design, very similar to some of the air purifiers today. These customary masks worked on the necessary of filtering out what they called "enemies" by using a ideas called High Efficiency Particulate Air or Hepa. Yes, the same Hepa filter systems we can buy today. Once they added charcoal to this ideas it made a dramatic improvement because the charcoal was able to filter out multiple toxins.
But it wasn't until World War Ii when we got some of the most advancements in air filter systems. This came with the Manhattan Project. This was a project that got scientists together from all colse to to work on a breathing gadget that would protect soldiers from the atomic bomb. While that was undoubtedly laughable in itself, it did end up in advancements that helped combat chlorine gas, mustard gas and flame throwers. A few years later a plague in Africa made scientists aware of the need for protection against chemicals, perfumes, building materials, pesticides, dust mites, pollen and food allergens. This started a string of air purification devices being developed.
In spite of all this, it wasn't until the 1980s that the clean air craze undoubtedly took off. The view of a dust free environment was all the rage, practical or not. agreeing to studies, Hepa filters, which were the biggest rage of the era, filtered out 99.7% of all the allergens in the air and all micron offenders of size 0.3 and larger. But advancements didn't stop there. Newer devices, such as Nebulizers, were able to filter out offenders of size 0.1 and larger and still keep the 99.7% filter level.
Over the years, the amount of devices used for filtering the air has grown astronomically. Just do an Internet search on the separate types and brands of air purifiers. There are undoubtedly hundreds of them.
All this from a straightforward mask designed for fire fighters. Who would have ever guessed?
