MSA Portalator Resuscitator

We have a Pneolator over in the fire hall, cleaned it up quite a bit, but time and rodents did a number on it. Only has one hose left, takes an odd ball tank. I have the tank from my Pneolator still, full of oxygen, and in my tank rack.

I'll go over and snap a few pics.
 
EMS Museum
http://www.emsmuseum.org/virtual-museum/Equipment/articles/398082-1950s-Resuscitation-MSA-Pneolator

Ours
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p79/cmk1883/20100710_12.jpg
Whole Unit

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p79/cmk1883/20100710_17.jpg
Workings

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p79/cmk1883/20100710_20.jpg
Regulator

I believe the unit provided one hose for ventilation, and one for the exhaled air to vent. Certainly, this was one of those devices that probably ranked high on the risk for aspiration. It had mask straps, so I assume you would strap the mask on and give the Stare of Life. My personal field experience with suction units is, the bigger the canister, the better. The size of this one tells me that they just put it on there so the title of the product would look better on paper. I tried to hook it up to an old Cascade System tank, and an old SCBA bottle, however the unit to 'non-portable' tank hose wouldn't fit. Normally, I'd love to hook an old unit up to see how she runs, but with the corrosion and metal breakdown, I wasn't real comfy hooking it up to an oxygen bottle.
 
Was going through old threads, and this question never got answered. It so happens I have one of these devices. There seems to be some confusion between the Pneolator and the Portalator here. While both MSA products, the Portalator was newer. Mine dates from 1964, the Pneolators are more 1950s. The Portalator is an oxygen-powered, pressure cycled "demand valve" like was typical. A Google search will turn up newspaper stories where Fire Departments and so forth were getting them up to at least 1970. The advertisement below shows one difference between the Pneolator and Portalator - dual patient capability with two demand valve option. Venturi aspirator too. Like most units, no "free flow" oxygen for a nasal cannula/simplemask /non-rebreather mask we all but exclusively use today. Infant and adult masks. There's also a transfilling valve to refill the cylinder from a bigger tank without removing it from the regulator, there's an extension hose mountedin the bottom left of the photo that does this. The green nylon thing you see is the carry strap. Unfortunately, my test lung was crumpled and dry rotted when it arrived.

Here's mine that I picked up fairly recently. It's in the original case, but no second demand valve. There's a property tag on it from an industrial setting where it came from. I collected old prehospital care and civil defense "junk" before the idea of getting the ambulances themselves crossed my mind. I have a lot of old resuscitators in particular, so if any questions or need for photos - let me know and I will try.
 

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